One of the Lord’s miracles, having a mystical meaning, was not accompanied by a visible benefit for any particular person, but signified a benefit to be poured out on all mankind. The miracle was the withering of the barren fig tree, rich only in leaves (Mark 11:13,14,20). This tree is mentioned in the Scriptures (Gen. 3:7), in the narrative of the fall of our forefathers, as one of the trees of Paradise. It served to cover their nakedness with its leaves, which the forefathers did not notice before falling into sin, a nakedness which sin revealed to them. It may be that the fruit of the fig tree in Paradise was the forbidden fruit. The Lord did not find any fruit on the fig tree. He sought the fruit before its time, letting His flesh seek an untimely desire for food, which mirrors the wrongfulness of the desire of the forefathers; which, as with all the weaknesses of man, the Lord carried upon Himself and destroyed by Himself. Not finding fruit, the Lord rejected the leaves, destroyed the very existence of the tree, at the same time that another tree, the tree of the Cross, was already being prepared as the instrument for the salvation of mankind. The tree, an instrument for the destruction of man, is slain by the command of the Saviour of men. The mystical miracle is accomplished in the presence of only the holy Apostles, the disciples of the mystical teaching. It is accomplished before the very entry of the God man upon the struggle of His atoning suffering for mankind, before being lifting up on the Cross.