Part 1: Don't give a fig?

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
   But you have made it a den of robbers.’
 
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.’ 
                                                                                                    Mark 11


For a long time I did not know how to understand the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. It seems unlike Jesus. Jesus is hungry, wants to eat, goes to a fig tree for its fruit, then gets mad when it does not have any. So Jesus, the one who refused to turn stones into bread, is using his power to curse a fig tree because he is hungry? This story makes Jesus sound stressed out and lacking self-control - not to mention not being environmentally friendly:) - or forgiving.

But set this passage alongside the passage from Jeremiah 8, and I think that you will start understanding why Matthew and Mark knew this story had to be in their gospels. The disciples may not have understood what was going on at the time, but this may have been one of the connections that Jesus made for them during that 40 day period after his resurrection and before his ascension:

... from the least to the greatest
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest
   everyone deals falsely.
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
   when there is no peace.
They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
   yet they were not at all ashamed,
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.
When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord,
   there are no grapes on the vine,
   nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
   and what I gave them has passed away from them.