Mark 2:23–28 (NKJV): 23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
As the Pharisees would continue to struggle with Jesus and His perceived lawless ways, we will see many examples of their disdain for Him as He continues to push the limits of their prejudices.
Back when we began our first church in the city of Worcester (1994), there was a family who b gab attending our services at the YMCA at Indian lake. They were an Italian family that lived in the Tatnuck Square area of the city. For those who may not know, Tatnuck square is the central zone for the city’s Jewish population. Some of the major temples are located there and since Jewish people walk to temple on the Sabbath, it is imperative that they live in close proximity to it. Our Italian friends lived in a street surrounded by many Orthodox Jews. I remember my friend telling me of the many encounters where he was asked to come over to one of his Jewish neighbors home to shut off their front porch light, because it was not permissible for them to do so on the Sabbath. When we see the Jews in the Bible berating Jesus for small infractions of the Sabbath, perhaps we can have a better idea of their state of mind. So important to them was an exact keeping of those traditions that they saw Jesus tearing apart the very fabric of their society. It is also no mistake that Jesus uses the example of David entering the House of God and eating the show bread, because David’s throne was the perceived throne that Messiah would sit upon when He came in His glory (Isaiah 9:7; Luke 1:32). Then Jesus tells them that “the Son of man”( His title as the Messianic representative according to Daniel 7:3), is Lord of the Sabbath. Now note this, that in the other synoptic gospels as here, there is no answer from the Pharisees. That in itself is worth pondering.