"... The controversy begins with Jesus and his disciples walking through a grain field on the Sabbath and the disciples, not Jesus, pick and eat grain. Matthew omits “made a way” (ὁδὸν ποιεῖν) from Mark. Perhaps it is distracting from the main halakic issue at hand (i.e., mercy for the hungry on the Sabbath). “ὁδὸν ποιεῖν” could possibly be construed as doing work, and Matthew is only concerned with justifying the disciples’ act of picking grain on the Sabbath. While Deuteronomy 23:25 permits gleaning by hand in a neighbour’s grain field, it makes no such allowance on the Sabbath. Matthew, however, adds to his Markan source that the disciples were “hungry” (ἐπείνασαν). It is on this point that the Matthean Jesus’ builds his halakic argument. Seeing the disciples glean the grain field, the Pharisees accuse them of doing what is not lawful/permissible (ἔξεστιν) on the Sabbath. Here, for the first time in the narrative, they make their objection directly to Jesus. He is responsible for the actions of his followers. First-century Sabbath interpretation is diverse, but mentioning the detail about the disciples’ hunger shows Matthew concedes that the Pharisees’ accusation that the disciples are working has some merit. Indeed, the Matthean Jesus’ following response implies this as well. However, Jesus will argue that there are certain circumstances for work and types of work that are permissible on the Sabbath, of which, his disciples’ grain picking is one. Jesus never abolishes or disregards the Torah, rather, like many Second Temple authors, he develops and grows Torah tradition by explaining and declaring what constitutes permissible work on the Sabbath ..."