What's Up With Jesus and the Fig Tree

THE KING JUDGES THE TEMPLE (11:12-21)
Mark now structures his material with a ‘sandwich’ which is typical of his style (cf. 3:20-35).
The material in the middle of the sandwich (in this case the cleansing of the temple in v.1519)
interprets and is interpreted by the material which surrounds it (in this case the cursing of the fig tree in v.12-14 and v.2021).

Jesus is not behaving like a spoiled brat in v.1214.
He is deliberately showing his disciples the state of Israel and what
will happen to her. In the OT God looked for fruit from the fig tree of Israel (Hos 9:10, Micah 7:16). Jesus sees leaves on the tree which would usually indicate fruit but he finds none so curses the tree. (Notice Mark makes much of the fact that the disciples ‘heard it’ v.14b remember
the importance of listening to Jesus 9:7?). He will return to the meaning of
the cursed fig tree in v.20ff but it seems that it is to do with the cursing of old Israel.

The incident in the temple which immediately follows makes that clear. Jesus enters Jerusalem, the focal point of Jewish life and heads straight to the temple, the focal point of religious life. This was the symbolic dwelling place of God on earth where sacrifices and prayers were offered to God. The money changing and pigeon selling activity was not wrong in and of itself. Atonement money had to be paid in a specific temple coinage (Cf. Ex 30:1116)
and birds were prescribed as offerings for sin and uncleanness (Lev 5:7,
12:6,8, 14:22). It was easier to buy already approved birds in the temple courts than to buy them outside and risk having them rejected.
So, the problem is not temple commerce. The problem is that these things were leaves where God was looking for fruit. The temple has ceased to be a house of prayer in
v.17 Jesus quotes from Jeremiah 7:11. Jeremiah 7 paints a
picture of a people who were using the temple as a guarantee of their safety (Jer 7:4) ye were neglecting the serious issues of life. They were oppressing the poor and worshipping other gods (Jer 7:56); like the Exodus generation they
were making their offerings but refusing to obey God (Jer 7:2124); like all the successive generations of Israel since they were refusing to listen to the words of the prophets (Jer 7:2526
cf. Mark 12:112).

This is a generation of God’s wrath (Jer 7:29) and hence Jesus curses them.
The chief priests and scribes confirm this analysis since they are looking for a way to destroy him (v.18). Even the crowd who are astonished at his teaching will eventually turn against him (15:11ff).
The next day they see the fig tree again and Peter ‘remembers’ and points out that it has withered. This gives Jesus an opportunity to teach more.

--St. Helen's Church Study Guide
And it’s as though Jesus is pronouncing now a curse, or at least pronouncing the beginning of the end for the very temple and its sacrifices; as though this is some kind of enacted parable for what actually will become true: that the days of the temple and the days of the sacrifices of lambs and of blood that is slain on these altars (of which we sang in a rendition of a hymn by Isaac Watts at the beginning of our prayer meeting this evening)...that those days are numbered because the true Israel has come, the true sacrifice is here, the Lamb of God is here to be slain. --Derek Thomas