Meaning of the Parable of the Fig Tree

The parable:

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” Matt 21: 18-20

Elder Theophylact provides the interpretation of this parable passed on through the ages by our Church fathers.

The fig tree means the synagogue of the Jews, which has only leaves, that is, the visible letter of the law, but not the fruit of the spirit.

But also every man who gives himself over to the sweetness of the present life is likened to a fig tree, who has no spiritual fruit to give to Jesus who is hungry for such fruit, but only leaves, that is, temporal appearances which fall and are gone. This man then hears himself cursed. For Christ says, Go, he accursed, into the fire. But he is also dried up; for as he roasts in the flame, his tongue is parched and withered like that of the rich man in the parable, who in his life had ignored Lazarus.