This account is often referred to as a “Sabbath conflict.”1 This term gives the impression that two different views of the Sabbath come into conflict here: the legalistic one of the Pharisees and the liberal one of Jesus. It is important to realize at the outset that we need to take a different approach to do justice to the text. For it’s not so much a “Sabbath conflict” as a conflict about Jesus (on the Sabbath). The Sabbath is the battleground, but the struggle is about the work of Jesus. The Pharisees try to catch him. When his disciples do something they try to make the Master responsible for it. For they want to sabotage his work. Indeed, it is possible that we should regard the question addressed to Jesus (“Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”) as a formal warning to him. That would begin the procedure that leads to a formal accusation (after having given a warning) and that next step would then come in 3:2, 6.2 The Sabbath is the décor; Jesus’ work is the issue!3
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.