“Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?”
Matthew 12:5 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 12:5
Having related the preaching together with the miracles of one year before John’s enquiry, He passes to those of another year, namely after the death of John, when Jesus is already in all things spoken against; and hence it is said, 'At that time Jesus passed through the corn fields on the sabbath day.'
This which here follows is related both by Mark and Luke, without any question of discrepancy; indeed they do not say, 'At that time,' so that Matthew has here perhaps preserved the order of time, they that of their recollection; unless we take the words in a wider sense, 'At that time,' that is, the time in which these many and divers things were done, whence we may conceive that all these things happened after the death of John. For he is believed to have been beheaded a…
Why then did He lead them through the corn fields on the sabbath, seeing He knew all things, unless He desired to break the sabbath? This he desired indeed, but not absolutely; therefore He broke it not without cause, but furnished a sufficient reason; so that He both caused the Law to cease, and yet offended not against it.