Noticing how those accompanying Jesus were picking and eating ears of corn, the Pharisees complained to Jesus, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."  And Jesus replied, "Do not condemn these innocent men. They are picking and eating ears of corn under my watch, and I have not condemned them, yet am the Lord of the Sabbath. If you have to condemn anyone, then condemn me!" What does the Sabbath mean for me, for you? Is it a day set aside for worshiping God? Of course it is. What kind of God? A legalistic God? A God who would remain unmoved even if someone is on the brink of dying of hunger because he/she is observing the Sabbath? A God who delights in sacrifice? Jesus seems not to think so.
We all know that our observance of the Sabbath follows the Genesis account of God resting on the seventh day after six days of creating the universe and everything in it. And I would not be entirely wrong to assume that for most of us that is where it ends. We don't go as far as asking ourselves why God had to rest. Was he tired? Was God exhausted after six days of laborious activity?
God rested on the seventh day after bringing forth life from nothing. God rested on the seventh day after creating order out of chaos. God hallowed the seventh day as a day of rest (Sabbath) as a celebration of the life God had created. God gives us the Sabbath first and foremost as a day of giving life. It is a day on which we celebrate life, God's life that is in us. It is day on which we stay away from as well as doing away with any and everything that might extinguish this sacred gift of God that has been placed inside of us. Isn't this what the disciples were doing when they were picking and eating ears of corn? Don't we eat so as to regenerate and keep ourselves alive? And how can this possibly be a violation of the Sabbath? Jesus interestingly points to the religious leaders who, presumed to be the guardians and protectors of life, are the real violators of the Sabbath. They represent all those who only care about the letter of the law while disregarding the spirit of the law: those who observe all the tenets of the law but are corrupt, selfish, mean, violent. These are the real violators of the Sabbath.