The use of proverbs, comparisons, and images by Jesus is not something new (see, e.g., the images in 2:19–22 and those in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5—7). What is new is that he now focuses on them and limits himself to them. The illustration becomes the main text. The comparisons and images will miss their subtitles.1
2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: