Mark 2:25
And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
The question belongs to a Sabbath controversy in which the disciples, passing through standing grain, plucked heads of wheat, rubbed the kernels in their hands, and ate them, while the scribes and Pharisees watched to accuse and charged them with breaking the Sabbath. It recalls David when he had need and was hungry with his men, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, ate the shewbread that was lawful only for priests, and gave it to those with him. The same setting illustrates the ancient provision that a hungry person passing through another person's field or vineyard could take grain or fruit to eat, which allowed David with his companions and the disciples, in contrast with laws that denied the poor even access to wild flowers.
Urgent and excessive hunger and need can excuse an act otherwise forbidden, so that David's eating of bread ordinarily reserved for priests was therefore guiltless, even though it violated the holiness of the sanctuary. By that example the disciples were much more excusable and guiltless in plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath to sustain bodily strength for God's service, and their act was in harmony with the Sabbath commandment, so the charge of Sabbath-breaking was denied, repelled, and their innocence established. Service to God comes first, so when fatigue and hunger attend that work it is right to satisfy human need even on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was made for man to give rest and peace and not to interfere with the needs of his being.
Those who condemned Him and charged Him with transgression of the Sabbath did so though He is the one who made the Sabbath and is its Lord. In answering He covered the disciples with the shield of His own prerogatives, acting with a dignity He alone possesses as God in the flesh in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, to whom all things are delivered of the Father, who has life in Himself and authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of man. Their condemnation exposes the folly and weakness of human judgment and complete spiritual blindness, as if people put out their own eyes, condemning Christ despite evidence He was sent by God, and the same loss of bearings recurs when workers insist on carrying the work in America in their own way.