Luke 6:2

But certain of the Pharisees said, Why do ye that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath day?

The sabbath commandment given by God in the Decalogue was simple enough. "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." A cessation of all work was required, travel suspended, except for short distances; and all chores, such as gathering sticks, were forbidden. To divine regulations, the Pharisees had added dozens of others, resulting in the most ridiculous requirements. In their view, Jesus' disciples were guilty of "reaping" by plucking the ears, "threshing" by rubbing them in their hands, and "carrying burdens" by conveying the grains to the mouth. It should be clearly understood, then, that what Jesus was charged with violating was not God's word at all, but the legal doodlings of the Pharisees.

Why do ye ...? In the Matthew parallel (Matthew 12:1-14), it is recorded that the charge was leveled against the disciples; but, of course the Pharisees charged both Jesus and the disciples, the latter for the actual deeds they misconstrued as violations, and Jesus for the actions he permitted and condoned.

It seems incredible that Christian scholars, in many cases, seem to be blind to the fact that both Christ and his disciples were totally innocent of these false charges. Even Ash writes that "their wrong was not theft,"[4] requiring the deduction that it was presumably something else; but the disciples did nothing wrong. Jesus emphatically said of them that they were "guiltless" (Matthew 12:7).