While he was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those (who were) with him were hungry? (How) he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions." Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." (Lk 6:1-5)
Pharisees took it upon themselves the duty of observing the laws and made sure that the others also observed. They had their own opinion about how the law should be kept and they always insisted that the society should keep the law. Since God has blessed the Sabbath, the Pharisees believed that it was a double responsibility laid on them.
Jesus and his men were in the same position as David and his men had been. David and his men were an exception to the normal rule and also were Jesus and his men. David had the right to take the bread of the presence because he was going to be the king. At the moment of the incident he was on the run from Saul. Jesus was also on the move (not on the run) with his followers and he would be the king and he was going about bringing in his kingdom.
Jesus would be the rightful king in the line of David. He would be an exception like David and so also his followers. Jesus was much more than David because he was the son of God. In Jesus God’s new world was breaking in and the kingdom of God was at hand and hence the old rules were not applicable to his situations. At least the old rules had to be rethought.
