<p>2:23 <em>And it came to pass, that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain</em>- Luke says they rubbed them in their hands; Matthew says they ate. Here we have a superb example of the Gospel writers being in artless agreement with each other, in a manner which would not have been achieved by an uninspired record. The force of &quot;began...&quot; might be because the Pharisees came and stopped them. This shows how closely the Lord and His men were under the critical eyes of others, even from a distance.</p><p>The very poor were allowed to do this by the Law (Lev. 19:9; Dt. 23:24,25), and so we see in this a picture of the deep poverty of the Lord&rsquo;s followers; He later parallels the urgent hunger of David&rsquo;s men at the time of 1 Sam. 21 with that of His followers. It would seem that He Himself did not make use of the concession, because the criticism was focused upon His disciples rather than Himself. W.D. Davies lists evidence that Judaism forbad fasting on the Sabbath (Jubilees 50:12) (W.D. Davies&nbsp;<em>Matthew&nbsp;</em>p. 312). In this case, the record is showing how the legalism of the time would&rsquo;ve condemned the disciples- and the poor generally- either way: for fasting on the Sabbath, or for &lsquo;threshing&rsquo; on the Sabbath to get food so as not to fast. The Lord therefore takes the whole argument to a level far above such petty legalism.</p><p>The Pharisees had reasoned themselves into a position whereby plucking heads of corn whilst walking through a corn field on the Sabbath was regarded as reaping. When the Lord was questioned about this issue, He didn&rsquo;t reply as most of us would have done: to attack the ridiculous definition of &lsquo;work on the Sabbath&rsquo;. He seeks to teach by general principle that the extent of His Lordship meant that He and His men were free to do as they pleased on this kind of matter.</p><p>The Lord&rsquo;s men were accused of &lsquo;threshing&rsquo; on the Sabbath because they rubbed corn in their hands (Mk. 2:23-28). The Lord could have answered &lsquo;No, this is a non-Biblical definition of working on the Sabbath&rsquo;. But He didn&rsquo;t. Instead He reasoned that &lsquo;OK, let&rsquo;s assume you&rsquo;re right, but David and <em>his</em> men broke the law because they were about God&rsquo;s business, this over-rode the need for technical obedience&rsquo;. The Lord Jesus wasn&rsquo;t constantly correcting specific errors of interpretation. He dealt in principles much larger than this, in order to make a more essential, practical, useful point.</p>