St. Matthew (21:18–22) and St. Mark (11:12–14, 20–25) record the cursing of the fig tree. On the morning of Monday in Holy Week, returning from Bethany to Jerusalem, Christ was hungry. Seeing afar off a fig tree in leaf, He went to it expecting to find fruit. Finding nothing but leaves — for it was not the season for figs — He said: 'May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.' And presently the fig tree withered away.
The disciples passed it again on Tuesday morning and saw it dried up from the roots. Peter exclaimed: 'Rabbi, behold the fig tree, which thou didst curse, is withered away.' Christ used the occasion to teach on faith: 'Amen I say to you, if you shall have faith, and stagger not, not only this of the fig tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Take up and cast thyself into the sea, it shall be done. And in all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.'
This is the only miracle of Christ that is destructive rather than restorative. The Fathers (Sts. Augustine, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria) read it as an enacted parable against the Temple of Jerusalem — leaves of religion without fruit of righteousness — placed in Mark's Gospel as a frame around the cleansing of the Temple in the very next verses (Mk 11:15–19). The tree without fruit prefigures the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.