NOTES for Mar 2:23-28
In the Pharisees' disputes with Christ about the Sabbath, the fundamental difference lies in what is considered important. The Pharisaic position, at first glance, is simple: it is written, "Do not do any of your work on the Sabbath," so we will not do it. Come what may, we will be at peace. After all, we have fulfilled the commandment, and we will not let anyone find fault with us, not even the One who gave that commandment. He will simply be forced to give the Pharisee the blessings of paradise, because everything has been fulfilled. Thus the Pharisee himself and his experience of his own righteousness stand at the center. The drive toward formal fulfillment of the commandments carries within it a hidden desire to shield all the "rest" of life, the part not reducible to commandments, from the Creator's intervention.
But for the Son of God, the living person stands at the center: the one who suffers and is in need. Formally the commandment may even be violated, but at the same time God's love and God's mercy enter the world and act within it. Rebuking the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus says that goodness and the salvation of the soul must be the true value: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" When we need to make decisions of this kind, it is important to remember the simple and practical criterion Christ Himself gives us here.