And (1) it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples (a) plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing [them] in [their] hands.
(1) Christ shows against the superstitious, who dwell on every trifling matter, that the law of the very sabbath was not given to be kept without exception: much less that the salvation of man should consist in the outward keeping of it.
(a) Epiphanius notes well in his treatise, where he refutes Ebion, that the time when the disciples plucked the ears of the corn was in the feast of unleavened bread. Now, in those feasts which were kept over a period of many days, as the feast of tabernacles and passover, their first day and the last were very solemn; see (Lev. 23:1-44). Luke then fitly calls the last day the second sabbath, though Theophylact understands it to be any of the sabbaths that followed the first.