In Mark 11, we have a picture of Jesus travelling from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem to enter the Temple for the final week of his ministry. Along the way, he finds a fig tree with a full covering of leaves, even though it is still early spring. Jesus approaches, expecting to find early figs because the fig tree will often set a breva crop. However, he finds the tree barren, without any fruit at all. Jesus makes a pronouncement that the tree will no longer produce any fruit. Jesus continues on to the Temple and begins teaching. Here he is challenged by several groups of religious leaders and to each one he points out their shortcomings. He calls them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites. In essence, he goes to the Temple with all its splendor and its highly educated teachers, a tree that is full of leaves and apparently healthy. Looking closely, however, he finds only decay and hypocrisy. Like the barren fig tree, he cannot find any f...