It seems like Jesus is in the business of thinning the crowd in this scene, not growing one. While that’s not the model that most modern churches would want to follow, he had a good reason. The work of the Gospel wasn’t just about doing magic tricks and gaining fame, it was about sacrifice and service. This would be modeled perfectly by Jesus later, but he didn’t want anyone to miss it right now. The way you build your Kingdom is important to sustaining it, and Jesus was laying a strong foundation, even if that meant smaller numbers.