Luke 6:5

And he said to them, because the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. If, he said, King David who was fed with priestly food is excusable, and according to the faith of another Gospel, the priests violating the Sabbath through temple service …

): The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. In the kingdom of the Redeemer, the sabbath day is to be turned into a Lord's day; the property of it is, in some respects, to be altered, and it is to be observed chiefly in honour of the Redeemer, as it had been before in honour of the Creator, Jer. xvi.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And he said unto them,.... He adds this at the close of the instances he gave, at the end of his vindication of his disciples, and discourse with the Pharisees, as a full answer to their cavils; that the son of man is Lord also of the sabbath; and may do what he will, and suffer his disciples to do whatever he pleases on that day; See Gill on Mat 12:8.

Lord also--rather "even" (as in Mt 12:8). of the sabbath--as naked a claim to all the authority of Him who gave the law at Mount Sinai as could possibly be made; that is, "I have said enough to vindicate the men ye carp at on My account: but in this place is the Lord of the law, and they have HIS sanction." (See Mr 2:28.) Lu 6:6-11.

We should notice in this passage — what excessive importance hypocrites attach to trifles. We are told that, "One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some corn fields, his disciples broke off heads of wheat, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grains." At once the hypocritical Pharisees found fault, and charged them with committing a sin. They said, "Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?" The mere act of plucking the heads of wheat, of course they did not find fault with.

We should notice in this passage — what excessive importance hypocrites attach to trifles. We are told that, "One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some corn fields, his disciples broke off heads of wheat, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grains." At once the hypocritical Pharisees found fault, and charged them with committing a sin. They said, "Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?" The mere act of plucking the heads of wheat, of course they did not find fault with. It was an action sanctioned by the Mosaic law. (Deuteronomy 23:25.) The supposed fault with which they charged the disciples, was the breach of the fourth commandment. They had done work on the Sabbath, by taking and eating a handful of food. This exaggerated zeal of the Pharisees about the Sabbath, we must remember — did not extend to other plain commandments of God. It is evident from many expressions in the Gospels, that these very men, who pretended such strictness on one little point, were more than lax and indifferent about other points of infinitely greater importance. While they stretched the commandment about the Sabbath beyond its true meaning — they openly trampled on the tenth commandment, and were notorious for covetousness. (Luke 16:14.) But this is precisely the character of the hypocrite. To use our Lord's illustration — in some things he makes fuss about straining a gnat out of his cup, while in other things he can swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:24.) It is a bad symptom of any man's state of soul, when he begins to put the second things in religion in the first place — and the first things in the second; or the things ordained by man — above the things ordained by God. Let us beware of falling into this state of mind.