Today's story follows immediately on yesterday's words of Jesus inviting those carrying heavy burdens to come to him for comfort and relief. Those burdens were understood to be the yoke of the Law which could weigh so heavily on the ordinary person. Today we see Jesus and His disciples walking through a cornfield. The disciples were feeling a little hungry so they began plucking ears of corn to eat. Nothing wrong with that. Gleaning, especially where the poor were concerned, was not regarded as stealing. Yet the Pharisees criticised the disciples' behaviour before Jesus. They were not upset by the plucking of the corn but because it was done on a sabbath day. Only the most legalistic mind could regard plucking corn as 'harvesting'. Jesus would have none of this nonsense. He gave two examples which the Pharisees would find difficult to criticise: David's soldiers eating food set aside as an offering to God and Temple priests working on the Sabbath. But he has two more important arguments: God is a God of love and compassion and not of laws, and Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. If, in the eyes of Jesus, His disciples are innocent, then they are innocent. There is a very demanding law to which we are all called to subscribe and that is the law of love. It allows of no exceptions. But its practice can only benefit both the giver and the receiver.