Mark 11 Destruction of a fig tree and the temple

In Mark 11, we see a sandwich narrative. A sandwich narrative is a writing style where the story is divided into two parts with a separate but similar story in the middle, like a sandwich. The Gospel of Mark records Jesus cursing a fig tree, but Jesus is not angry. Jesus is living out a parable from Jeremiah chapter 8. Just as the fig tree was doomed for destruction because it did not produce fruit, so too the Temple in Jerusalem was doomed because the people were not producing spiritual fruit. This leads Jesus to close his sandwich with the desert offering of prayer, where we are confronted with our unwillingness to forgive.