Score one for the Master

~Mark 2.23-28 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”
Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”
Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

The disciples were probably law-abiding Jews, so I doubt they seriously considered picking the tasty grain on their own. Everyone knew grain couldn't be picked on the Sabbath even if you were starving. It was considered work, and this was a day of mandated rest. Perhaps the disciples hopefully mentioned their hunger to Jesus. Sometimes a kid will complain to me about something the resolution to which seems completely obvious. And I will say, "Hmmm. What could you do about that?" So I can imagine the disciples mentioning to Jesus that it was past lunch time and him looking around at all the grain and saying, "Hmmm. What could you do about that?"

So, what do they do? They smile at each other and they eat.

But the tattle-tale Pharisees see it and are on that transgression like a robin on a June bug. "Jesus! Did you see what your unruly band is doing now? They are harvesting on a Sunday!"

Jesus' first reply to the Pharisee, pulls from the scriptures an example of King David breaking the same rule. This is a fairly safe answer because Pharisees do respect the scriptures. But Jesus just can't make it easy for these steroidal law enforcers, so he throws in the annoying reminder that God's rules are made for the benefit of man, not man for the benefit of the rules. He then adds an incendiary remark implying that he (the Son of Man) is above the Sabbath rules anyway. I can hear the Pharisees gritting their teeth, while the disciples munch on thinking "Score one for the Master!"