<p>13:53<em> And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there- </em>This seems to serve as the end point of the longest day recorded in the Lord's ministry apart from the crucifixion (see on 13:1). The idea is that when He had finished the teaching, He departed. We meet the same idea and Greek word for &quot;finished&quot; in Mt. 11:1 (also Mt. 19:1; 26:1- &quot;When He had finished [s.w.] commanding His twelve disciples, He departed&quot;. We get the impression that He was teaching according to a program; when He had finished delivering what He intended, it was time to go. And He went. This impression is given several times in His ministry. The question is whether God directly revealed this to Him, or whether He Himself on His initiative designed a program of teaching and ensured that He kept to it. My sense is the latter, which explains the way that earlier in this chapter He appears to take the decision to change from one teaching program to another.</p>