Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 12:1–8

1 Big mobs of people followed Jesus. Some of them were sick, and he made them better.
2 But he told them straight, “Don’t go and tell other people about me.”
3 A long time ago God got his man called Isaiah to write about this in God’s book, and it happened just like that man wrote. Isaiah said,
4 “This is the man God picked to work for him. God loves him, and he makes God very happy. God will put his spirit in him, and he will show everyone in every nation that God is right and fair.
5 He will not fight with anyone or shout at people. Nobody will hear him shouting in the streets.
6 Some people are weak, like a blade of grass that is almost broken, and some people can’t help themselves, like a lamp wick that has almost gone out. He will not forget those people but he will help them to get strong. He will keep on being right and fair to everyone, till people, too, are fair to each other,
7 and people everywhere will believe that he can save them.”
8 One day some Jewish law teachers, and other law men called Pharisees, went to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to see you do something powerful. This will show us that God sent you.”

23 The Jewish law men saw Jesus’s followers eating those seeds, and those law men got upset. They growled at Jesus and said, “Your mob are doing the wrong thing. Our Jewish law says that today is the rest day. But your mob are getting seeds off those plants. That is work. They are breaking our law.”
24 Jesus said to them, “Hey. Remember the story about David and his men. You know, it was at that time Abiathar was the leader for the Jewish ceremonies. David and his men were really hungry,
25 so David went into God’s ceremony place and got the special bread. Only the leaders of the Jewish ceremony can eat that bread. But David and his men ate that special bread, and so they broke our Jewish law, but God didn’t punish them.”
26 Then Jesus said to them, “Listen to me now. God’s rest day is for people to have a rest, not just to follow laws.
27 Listen, I am God’s special man from heaven, and I’m boss of everything. I am even the boss for our Jewish rest day. So I’m not worried that my friends are grabbing some seeds to eat.”