<p>6:36 <em>Send them away- </em>Twice they wanted to turn away those who wished to come to Jesus, and whom He wished to accept (Mt. 14:15; 15:23). As with the two miracles of bread, the second incident was giving them the opportunity to learn the lesson from the first incident- and yet they failed. Likewise they &ldquo;forbad&rdquo; John&rsquo;s disciples just as they wrongly &ldquo;forbad&rdquo; the little children to come to Him (Lk. 9:50). They ask the Lord to send the multitude away, whereas He had taught by word and example, that whoever came to Him He would not turn away (Jn. 6:37). Mark and Matthew present themselves, the disciples, as seriously out of step with their Lord at this time. And surely the communities which they were establishing were likewise tempted to &lsquo;send away&rsquo; or deny fellowship to those whom the Lord would have them fellowship.</p><p><em>That they may go into the country and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat</em>- Seeing most of the people were poor, and were likely subsistence farmers, it is most unlikely they had money to buy food. And 5000 men plus women and children would&rsquo;ve meant a crowd of 10,000 at least- the few shops in those tiny hamlets would&rsquo;ve been totally unable to provide for them. Here again we see the insensitivity of the disciples being related in the narrative which they themselves told after the resurrection. The apparently redundant &ldquo;buy&nbsp;<em>themselves</em>&rdquo; may suggest the disciples&rsquo; bitterness and resentment at the apparent expectation of the crowd that the Lord was to provide food for them. The only other time we meet the phrase is when the wise virgins tell the foolish to go and &lsquo;buy for themselves&rsquo;, and refuse to give their oil to them. Perhaps the Lord built that phrase into the parable because the disciples had earlier used it- and by His provision, He had effectively rebuked them for doing so.&nbsp;</p>