Where Are the Teachers?

28 July 2025  Matthew 13:31-35

“All this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, He said nothing to them without a parable….” Matthew 13:34

Nowhere in Matthew’s gospel does Jesus actually teach a crowd.

Yes, yes, there is the Sermon on the Mount, but even that centerpiece of Jesus’ moral teaching was not delivered to a crowd. In fact, the text specifically says that when Jesus spotted the crowd, he went up on a mountain, which is where he usually went to be alone, to get away from the crowds. His disciples followed Him there, and Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount to them (Matthew 5:1-2). Afterward “the crowds were astonished at His teaching” (7:28), but it wasn’t because they were eyewitnesses, but because they had heard it from the eyewitnesses.

So, what did Jesus do when He was in a crowd?

In almost all of the texts in Matthew that show Jesus in a crowd, He was healing them, or performing some other kind of sign – e.g. the Feeding of the 5000, the Feeding of the 4000, casting out demons. In some others He was arguing with – and subsequently rebuking – the Scribes and Pharisees. When He was speaking to a crowd directly, He spoke only in parables, but He did not explain any of the parables to the crowd. He only explained them later, and then only to the disciples. In fact, when he was pressed on this matter, He said that He spoke to the crowds in parables because the crowds were not reliable witnesses. He quoted Isaiah against them: “You shall indeed hear, but never understand, and you shall indeed see, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them” (Isaiah 6:9-10). In the same chapter He quotes another prophetic witness, Psalm 78:2: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world,” but He only told the crowd that it was still hidden. He only explained parables to the disciples.

There is no verse in Matthew that shows Jesus actually teaching a crowd.

All of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew was done in smaller venues, with small groups. The same was true for St. Paul. There are no texts showing Paul teaching crowds either. He preferred smaller, more intimate settings for his teaching, too.

If there is a New Testament model for witnessing and teaching, then, it seems that it is directing us to teach in smaller settings with more intimate groups that we know rather well – friends, neighbors, parish groups, and especially families. The disciples were a very tight group, bound by a variety of family relations. There were two sets of brothers among the Twelve – Peter and Andrew, James and John. It is likely that James and John were actually related to Jesus – they are believed to have been sons of Mary’s sister, and so would have been Jesus’ first cousins. Another woman named Mary was a cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was among those who traveled with Jesus. She was a witness to the crucifixion and the Resurrection, and her husband, Cleopas, was one of the people the Risen Christ appeared to on the Road to Emmaus on Easter Day. Mary and Cleopas would have been Jesus’ Aunt and Uncle. Family ties, it turns out,produced many of the first witnesses to the Greatest Story Ever Told.

If smaller groups for witnessing and teaching are the New Testament model, that means we need a lot of witnesses and teachers – ideally some for every family. That means we have a lot of training to do, that we always have a lot of training to do. Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes won’t say grace at our tables. They won’t teach us to pray, or make sure there’s a Bible in the house, or read it to us, or answer our questions about it. They won’t say our prayers at bedtime, or make sure we go to Mass, or care for us when we are sick, or assure us of heaven when we lie dying. Mothers and Fathers do that. Husbands and wives do that. Sons and daughters do that. Brothers and sisters do that. Friends and neighbors do that. We need to train them.