NOTES for Mar 11:12
The Gospel story-parable about the withered fig tree begins by mentioning that Jesus, after leaving Bethany, felt hungry. There is, of course, nothing surprising in this: human nature is human nature, and it makes its demands. But in the life of the Messiah everything was not so simple, even if we speak of His earthly path. The God-man has absolute command of His human nature; for Him, in principle, there can be no situation in which He gives in to His human nature out of weakness.
In this case, hunger and thirst are not forced necessity, but the result of a conscious choice. Approaching the fig tree, Jesus offers it the chance to satisfy His hunger. At first glance this may seem strange. But He Himself said that every participation in His life makes the participant part of the Kingdom He brought into the world. If this is true of people, then it can be thought true of the rest of creation as well. Of course, the participation will be different in each case, but that does not change the essence of the matter.
For the fig tree to give its fruit to the Messiah is the same chance to participate in the life of the Kingdom as it is for a person to receive the Messiah in his home. Of course, a tree is not a human being; it cannot understand the situation in a human way, nor can it make a choice or decision in a human way. A tree is limited by the natural laws God established for it. But sometimes these laws can work differently. For example, when the Kingdom is near. And sometimes they may not work differently; this depends on many reasons. But if they do not work differently, it means the Kingdom passes by, with all that follows from that.