Mark 2:23-28

²³ Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.

²⁴ And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

²⁵ But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:

²⁶ how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

²⁷ And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Also found in Matthew 12:1-8 and Luke 6:1-5.

through (v.23) — Seems to indicate that the Lord followed a path that led through a grain field with grain on either side. As they walked, the disciples picked grain.

The law forbade reaping grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered even picking a few heads to be reaping.

Have you never read (v.25) — The Greek grammar indicates that the Lord expected an affirmative answer. The Pharisees had read the Old Testament and knew about David’s actions.

house of God (v.26) — the tabernacle

Abiathar (v.26) — 1 Samuel 21:1 names Ahimelech as high priest. … Apparently he was high priest at the time. … It is possible that both father and son both both names (1 Samuel 22:10; 2 Samuel 8:17; 1 Chronicles 18:16), Abiathar being mentioned, though both were involved. — Wuest, page 60.

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showbread (v.26) — The loaves that were set forth before the Lord. The Jews called them the loaves of the face, namely, of the presence of God. There were twelve loaves of bread baked on Friday and these were placed on the Table of Shewbread in the Holy Place on the Sabbath, the others being removed. It was this old bread that David ate, and which was ordinarily eaten only by Levitical priests. — Wuest, page 60.

man (v.27) = mankind

The Lord established the Sabbath for the good of man. The Pharisees thought man was made for the Sabbath.

Lord (v.28) — The word is kurious, which means “he to whom a person or thing belongs, the owner;” it is used of the possessor and disposer of a thing. In this sense was the son of Man Lord of the Sabbath. But the word is used in the LXX as a translation of the august title of God which we know as Jehovah, and thus has implications of deity. The Creator is Lord of creation, and Lord of the Sabbath. He brought it into being for the sake of mankind. — Wuest, page 61

also (v.28) = even

Jesus’ fivefold rebuttal to the accusation is given in Matthew: (1) the example of David (12:3-4), (2) the teaching of the Law (12:5), (3) the prophetic anticipation of Someone greater than the Temple (12:6), (4) the purpose of the Sabbath for man (12:7; cf. Mark 2:27), and (5) Messiah’s lordship over the Sabbath (12:8) — Harmony, page 60.

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Perhaps the answer of our Lord has been as much misunderstood as any other words He ever spoke. It has been assumed that he spoke across the boundary between the new dispensation and the old, as One from whose movements the restraints of Judaism had entirely fallen away, to those who were still entangled. And it has been inferred that the Fourth Commandment was no more than such a restraint, now thrown off among the rest. But this is quite a misapprehension both of His position and theirs. On earth he was a minister of the circumcision. He bade His disciples to observe an do all that was commanded from the seat of Moses. And it is by Old Testament precedent, and from Old Testament principles, that He now refutes the objection of the Pharisees. This is what gives the passage half its charm, this discovery of freedom like our own in the heart of the stern old Hebrew discipline …

David and his followers, when at extremity, had eaten the shewbread which it was not lawful for them to eat. … We should have said that in other circumstances it would have been unlawful, that only necessity made it lawful; we should have refused to look straight in the face the naked ugly fact that David broke the law. But Jesus was not afraid of any facts. He saw and declared that the priests in the Temple itself profaned the Sabbath when they baked the shewbread and when they circumcised children. They were blameless, not because the fourth Commandment remained inviolate, but because circumstances made it right for them to profane the Sabbath. And His disciples were blameless also, upon the same principle, that the larger obligation overruled the lesser, that all ceremonial observance gave way to human need, that mercy is a better thing than sacrifice. — Chadwick, page 68.