Jesus’ ministry was all about giving away. In this period, he’s doing everything to help the disciples understand what it is they’re receiving. He sends them out with nothing, so they can understand what it is to start from a position of weakness, both receiving from those they meet and giving back to them of the Kingdom. When they come back, they excitedly tell him what they have done… and immediately flunk the test. “You feed them” is yet another lesson. But Jesus is patient. When the disciples miss the point entirely, he doesn’t send them away and do the work himself. He still includes them. You have to wonder, as they are collecting those baskets of leftover food, if they were thinking, “maybe we should have tried this.”