23 Jesus was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

25 He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? 26 How he entered into God’s house when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” 27 He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:23-28 - World English Bible

In these passages from Mark, Jesus discussed Sabbath duty with the Pharisees. As rural inhabitants, Jesus ans his followers from Galilee had a looser interpretation of that duty than the stricter Pharisees who lived in the cities. But, there was a deeper controversy than simply rural vs. urban ways; this controversy was a struggle over the nature and application of the Law, specifically what it meant to be "kosher."

The followers of Jesus plucked grain in a field to eat, but the Pharisees objected, since, as the Torah forbade the kindling of fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3) and, by extension, cooking; so, any activity involved in the production of food was unlawful. Jesus answered the complaint with a story from 1 Samuel 21:1-7; David asked for food from Ahimelech the priest, so his hungry warriors could eat. (Mark 2:26 mentioned the son of Ahimelech, Abiathar, but this character would not be named until 1 Samuel 22:20) The priest replied the only food he could give them was the show bread offered to YHWH alone. David said his men purified themselves by abstaining from sexual relations for three days, so they were implicitly clean and, hence, worthy to eat the bread (1 Samuel 21:5). Notice the rabbinical point of the story in 1 Samuel 21 and Mark 2 was the kosher status of the David's men, and the followers of Nazorene. Jesus and the Pharisees did not argue over hunger or the convenient availability of food, but over two questions: 1) Who was kosher? and 2) Who determined the status of the kosher? Jesus implied his followers were "clean" because they followed the Son of Man, who, in turn, judged what was acceptable to God ("The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.") In doing so, Jesus rejected the authority of the Pharisees as experts in the Law and established a new principle for applying the Law in regards to Sabbath ("The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath").

As Christians, we are acceptable to the Father because we follow his Son. We reject our status, not when we break a law only, but when we sever our relationship with Christ.

Do you worry about breaking a rule or do you primarily look out for the good of others?