Jesus is doing many symbolic things that point to the kind of Kingdom he’s building in this passage. He starts by riding on a donkey colt as he enters Jerusalem, which is both funny and ironic. Most victors, coming home from war, would have rode in on the biggest war horse they could find to show their triumph. Jesus seems to be both poking fun at that establishment and turning it on its head. And of course, the withering of the fig tree seems kind of random, but it’s not. He came to condemn those who use religion as a cudgel to beat others with, making them poor fruit bearers like the tree.