Summary: While traversing a grain field on the Sabbath, Jesus' disciples picked grains, leading Pharisees to challenge their actions. Jesus cited David's act of eating consecrated bread, reserved for priests, to highlight the precedence of human need over strict Sabbath observance. He taught that the Sabbath serves humanity's welfare, asserting His authority as the Son of Man over the Sabbath, thus redefining its purpose and application.
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
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