***then how do you reconcile this....given that your position aligns with that of the Sadducees?
[Matthew 23:1-3]...***
Simple. Christ was Lord of the Sabbath. He knew that the Pharisees had the legal authority to change laws so told the people to respect the office but not the persons.
Besides Christ knew the rule of the pharisees was about to come to an end.
Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
The onerous laws were the ones Christ was referring to.
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw [it], they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
They may have been forced to keep a Pharasee feast of first fruits but knew when the REAL one was. Then there was still the Sadusees and their weekend feast of firstfruits, and what is to have kept a farmer from bringing in his first crops at the proper Levitical time? the priests in the Temple could have easily done all three forms of the firstfruits.
I will stay with the Levitical dates for the Feast of Firstfruits.
Luk 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
This day was a SUNDAY as the day before was the weekly Sabbath.
I'm sorry....you are misinterpreting those "Levitical Dates".
[Leviticus 23:5-6] In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
Passover, the 14th; First Sabbath, the 15th; The weekly Sabbath was last mentioned in verse 3.
[Leviticus 23:7-8] In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
The First Day of Unleavened Bread is here identified as a Sabbath day. It is further identified in the New Testament by John in [19:31] The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
And, of course we know that it is the 15th because John earlier tells us in [19:14].....And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King. This identifies the day as the 14th. Tomorrow will be the 15th and according to John, a High Sabbath.
[Leviticus 23:9-11] And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
No one can argue the point that the immediate and extremely plain context is the First Sabbath of Unleavened Bread....the 15th of Abib. In context and without pretext then.......verses 8-11 flow out of those texts and do not jump to any mention of the weekly Sabbath!