The Son of Man Is Lord of the Sabbath (2:23-28).
In this incident we are provided with an example of how the Pharisees sought to cling to the old, while Jesus was introducing the new. The Pharisees believed that there were certain things that epitomised Israel's covenant with God, and that it would be by observing these fully that they would help to issue in God's Kingly Rule. These included washing rituals which kept them ‘clean' from defilement by an outer world which did not observe God's requirement to be ritually ‘clean'; strictly tithing all their possessions; avoiding being involved with all who did not subscribe to their ideas, and strictly observing the Sabbath. These things had become the be all and end all of their lives. Thus when they saw the disciples of the new prophet flouting the Sabbath rules as laid down by the Scribes, they were both horrified and furious. It went against all in which they believed. This prophet was, in their eyes, actually delaying the time when God's Kingly Rule would come, so mechanical were they in their views. And when Jesus brought out that as the new David He took a different view of the Sabbath, and supported it by citing the Scriptures, it was beyond what they could take. It was one thing for David to behave like this (no one had ever criticised David for it), it was quite another for this upstart ‘prophet' to do it. And this was especially so when He claimed as the Son of Man to be Lord of the Sabbath (although they might not have been sure at this stage whether He was referring to Himself or someone else).
Analysis.
a And it happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the cornfields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn (Mark 2:23).
b And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why do they on the Sabbath day what is not lawful?” (Mark 2:24).
c And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry, he and those who were with him? How, in the passage headed ‘Abiathar the High Priest', he entered into the house of God, and ate the shewbread which it is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” (Mark 2:25-26).
b And he said, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
a “So that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28).”
Note that in ‘a' we have described what happened on the Sabbath, and in the parallel it could not be criticised because the Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath. In ‘b' the Pharisees charge the disciples with doing what was not lawful on the Sabbath, and in the parallel Jesus points out that man was not made in order to establish and preserve the Sabbath, but that God's purpose for the Sabbath was that it might benefit man. Centrally in ‘c' He demonstrates that as the new David He has the authority to shape God's Law.