Mark 11
The Jerusalem section opens with the triumphal entry — a deliberately arranged messianic sign fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, with the requisitioned colt, the cloaks spread on the road, and the Hosanna acclamation of Psalm 118 — and closes with the authority question, and between them are the temple cleansing and the fig tree cursing that interpret each other. The fig tree in full leaf without fruit is the sign of the temple full of religious activity without the kingdom's fruit, and Jesus curses it; the next day it is withered from the roots while the temple that it signified is cleared of its commercial operations with the double citation — Isaiah 56:7 (my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations) against Jeremiah 7:11 (you have made it a den of robbers). The withered fig tree's discovery the following morning becomes the occasion for the mountain-moving faith teaching and the forgiveness condition on effective prayer: whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours — and forgive, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you. The authority question from the full Sanhedrin (by what authority are you doing these things?) is deflected by the counter-question about John's baptism — was it from heaven or from human origin? — which the Sanhedrin cannot answer without either admitting Jesus' authority (John was from God, and John testified to Jesus) or facing the crowd who universally held John to be a genuine prophet. Their we don't know receives the Jesus' neither will I tell you — not evasion but the judgment that a dishonest question receives no honest answer.
Mark 11:33
So they answered Jesus, we don't know. Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things — the we don't know is dishonest — they know their position but refuse to state it because of the political consequences. Jesus matches their refusal with a refusal: if they will not answer a question they can answer, he will not answer their question. The exchange establishes that the Sanhedrin's question was not a genuine inquiry and that Jesus' authority is not available for their evaluation on their terms.
Mark 11:14
Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it — the cursing of the fig tree is the only destructive miracle in the Gospels and the only miracle performed on a non-human subject. Its function is prophetic-symbolic: the fig tree in full leaf but without fruit is Israel in the temple with all the external forms of worship but without the kingdom's fruit. The disciples hear the curse — they are witnesses who will observe the next morning's withering.
Mark 11:15
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves — the temple cleansing has been the intended action since the survey of verse 11. The driving out, overturning, and scattering of the commercial operations in the temple courts is a prophetic action — a dramatic enactment of the temple's corruption and the judgment it faces. The money changers and dove sellers occupied the Court of the Gentiles — the only area available to non-Jews for prayer.