The cursing of the fig tree (11:12–25) often offends readers, not only because it is the only miracle of destruction in the canonical Gospels, but also because Jesus curses a tree for not producing fruit out of season (10:13). The fig tree story is another of Mark’s sandwich units, however, in which the cursing and withering of the tree is interrupted by the “cleansing of the temple” episode. The splicing of the two stories together signifies that the fate of the unfruitful fig tree foreshadows God’s judgment on the unfruitful temple. Walking the roughly two miles from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus sees a fig tree in leaf and approaches it in hopes of finding figs to eat. In Judea fig trees produce immature green figs before coming to leaf, and once foliage appears one expects to find branc…