Jesus' miracle involving the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14, 20-24) is the only one in which He brings judgment by a miracle. All the other miracles are acts of goodness and mercy. This miracle, which can also be classified as a parable, is recorded in more detail in Mark than in Matthew. Mark's chronology is also more detailed, showing its correlation with other events, clarifying, for instance, that this miracle and the cleansing of the Temple took place within two days.
Having gone through several days of conflict and tension, Jesus now needed to find a place of love, gratitude, and peace to rest and meditate on soon-coming events. He found it with His friends in Bethany. This setting contrasted markedly to Satan's world, designed to be hectic with its constant pressure to keep people from thinking deeply about anything of true value. Satan knows that if he can make us busy, it is easier to make us sin.
Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: The Withering of a Fig Tree
The miracle of Christ's withering of the fig tree reveals His divine and human natures. As God, He withered the tree in judgment. As Man, He needed the sleep His friends' home in Bethany provided as well as the tree's food to sustain Him, as “He was hungry.”
Although He could have satisfied His hunger with a miracle, He showed self-restraint in the use of His supernatural power to teach a valuable lesson to His disciples. He would not use it to provide for His personal wants or for those of His disciples. Nor would He work a miracle just to impress others. He would not do so to increase His earthly influence or power or to terrorize people into accepting His teaching. If a need could be fulfilled by human effort, or if lessons would be useful, Jesus would do no miracle.
Self-restraint requires faith. Jesus withered the fig tree to teach His disciples a lesson in faith because, if they had genuine faith in God, they would not only be able to affect nature miraculously as Jesus did with the tree, but also move mountains (Matthew 17:20). If they truly believed and asked according to God's will, they would receive whatever they prayed for.
Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: The Withering of a Fig Tree
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