Religious Leadership and Withered Fig Trees in Matthew 21

Yeshua's attack on the fruitless fig tree seems very strange until you put it into the full context of the chapter and realize that it's part of a literary structure that spans more than half the chapter. It's really about leadership that is failing to help the people produce fruit. Yeshua replaced the religious leadership of his day with the Twelve Disciples, not as priests, but as the national teachers, prophets, and judges of Israel.