V.1-5 The Lord seems to have Israel as a nation in mind, its hypocrisy and rebellion, and God’s patience and heart of love toward it. These were no more wicked than the whole nation.
V.6-9 The fig tree is another picture of Israel; it had no fruit for the Lord. For three years — the time of the Lord’s presence and preaching among them — they had hated Him and not repented. And so even after the Lord was crucified, He waited and sent messages of forgiveness. But they rejected them all, and stoned Stephen who warned them so faithfully. Now, as a nation, they’ve been “cutoff” — not the individual Jewish people.
V.11-13 All this poor woman could see was the ground around her feet — a picture of Israel. The Lord touches her, and she stands up straight, and looks into the face of Jesus! What a picture of what He will do for Israel in the future.
V.23 Sounds like a sensible question, but sometimes such questions are simply an attempt to get away from the question “am I saved?”
V.34-35 He loves the people, even though He knew that they hated Him and would very soon crucify Him. He looked back on their history and knew all about those who had been sent in past years and had been killed.