Mark 11:18
And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.
Mark 11:18 belongs to the second cleansing of the temple among the closing events of the ministry, coming just after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and just before the lesson of the barren fig tree. It stands together with the entry, the cleansing, and the blighting of the tree as events pointing to the doom of Jerusalem. At that cleansing Christ expelled the traders from the temple courts for dishonest dealing, ordered their removal, and declared that the house of prayer had been turned into a refuge for robbers. Divinity shone through His humanity in His face, so that no trader or richly robed priest who looked at Him dared stay and all fled quickly.
The scribes, chief priests, and rulers sought how they might destroy Him because they feared Him and His authority, while all the people were astonished at His teaching. His effort to reform the corrupt priesthood would not succeed, yet He still had to do the work and give the unbelieving people evidence of His divine mission.
His righteous anger there foreshadows God's righteous anger in the destruction of Jerusalem, taught under the symbol of the blighted tree. The fig tree displaying showy leaves without fruit is the Jewish nation separated from God, which in pride and apostasy lost discernment and did not recognize its Redeemer. The judgment on the barren fig tree thus symbolizes the sentence and downfall of the Jewish nation. The same judgment applies to professed Christians who are formal, selfish, boastful, and hypocritical, claiming godliness without bearing the fruit of good works.