Luke 13:18-21

The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (Matthew 13:31-33; Mark 4:30-32). Lk. may have introduced these parables here either because the joy of the people was in his view the occasion of their being spoken, Jesus taking it as a good omen for the future, or because he found in his source the two things, the cure and the parabolic speech, recorded together as incidents of the same meeting in the synagogue. In either case it is implied that the parables were spoken in a synagogue, in the latter case as a part of a regular synagogue address. This is the interesting feature in Lk.'s report of these parables. It is the only instance in which parables are connected with synagogue addresses as their occasion. The connection is every way credible, both from the nature of the two parables, and from the fact that Jesus was wont to speak to the people in parables. How many unrecorded parables He must have spoken in His synagogue addresses on His preaching tour through Galilee, e.g. (Mark 1:39).