The Pharisees who were scandalized at Jesus' disciples for innocently plucking grain and eating it on the Sabbath were probably even more scandalized when Jesus recounted the story of David in their defence. There was a great difference between the value system promoted by Jesus and the one which guided the Pharisees.

To be fair to them, the Pharisees tried to make religion more relevant to the lives of the people by insisting on the value of the Torah over the importance of the Temple. Ordinary people could not always go to the Temple to worship, but through the word of God recorded especially in "the law of Moses", they had, in a reasonably accessible form, the word of God as a wise and enlightening guidance for their daily life. The difficulty was that the written word could take on an authority of its own and so less important rules and regulations could become rather oppressive. Like the Pharisees, Jesus could quote scripture, but he did so only on important matters and in order to convey the freedom which God's word was supposed to bring, as light in darkness.