He exposes their inner workings with the shattering parable that follows in chapter 12, verses 1-9. The scene is the vineyard first described in Isaiah 5. It was a vineyard complete with fence, winepress, and watchtower, so well equipped, that it could hardly help but be a profitable enterprise. This vineyard, we have seen, represented Israel, a nation God had planted and fully equipped to follow Him. God the Father is described as a landowner who has gone into another country but expects a return on his investment (Mark 12:2).
It was no coincidence that Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree (11:12-14, 20-22) took place on His way to meet the Sadducees and Pharisees. This living parable set the stage for the confrontation to come. In the tense debates with these religious leaders, Jesus would amplify the truths He introduced under the fig tree’s barren branches.
Jesus went on from there to the temple, where Mark records that He, “began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money–changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and He, would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple” (Mark 11:15-16).
Mark wants us to see the connection between Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree and the task He was on His way to Jerusalem to perform—the cleansing of the temple from all that defiled it (Mark 11:15-19). The next morning, when the disciples and Jesus pass this tree again, the disciples will see that every leaf on the fig tree had died within twenty–four hours; it was “withered away to its roots” (v. 20). Jesus passes by the tree this time on His way to the final round of debate with the Pharisees and Sadducees, as we will see in a later chapter.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, He went to the temple, looked around, and left the city with His disciples. The next day, Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem again, this time walking with His disciples. He comes up to a fig tree looking for fruit. When He finds no figs on it, He says to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14). This passage is hated by modernists and unbelievers. The Interpreter’s Bible comments:
