How did Jesus secure the attention of his hearers?

• By asking for it.  “Hear…”; “Look…”
• By announcing his coming by sending messengers in advance.
• By utilising posture.  Adopting the posture of a Rabbi, he would sit to teach.
• By using concrete, pictorial, imaginative language.
• By using the familiar to explain the unfamiliar.
• By making one point in several different ways: The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son.
• By giving teaching which was different from what his hearers were used to (from the scribes).
• By paying attention.  He was interested in people.
• By moving around, carrying his message from one place to another.

All of these things came naturally to him, because they overflowed from his own personality.  Lesser teachers must do them more consciously and intentionally.

Based on Horne, Teaching Techniques of Jesus, p12-14.