Jesus didn't always go for the crowd

Time after time we read in the Gospels about crowds following Jesus. He didn't seem to have a problem gathering a crowd. I suppose people getting healed all over the place stimulated interest. At the end of Matthew 4 we read that so great was his fame that people travelled from all over the region to find out about him and see him in the flesh.

Then at the start of Matthew 5 we read this:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. - Matt 5 v 1

He often spoke to crowds, for long periods, so much so that he had to perform a miracle to feed them. But on this occasion he decided to leave the crowds and disappear up a mountain. On this occasion when he sat down to teach it was with a smaller group of His disciples.

Jesus saw the need to spend some quality time with the key people in this revolution that was to become His Church. They get the inside track to help them understand where this thing was going. He wanted them to understand what the vision for His Kingdom was all about. It was different and these guys needed to understand.

So he teaches his most famous sermon for the few and not the crowd. He lays out the crown jewels of the Kingdom to the few.

As a leader he knew that these were the people who would carry His topsy turvey message to the bigger crowds with the help of the Holy Spirit when He was gone.

Sometimes as a leader you need to give up the adrenaline of the crowd to invest your best into the few.