It wasn't the high and mighty - they had no interest in the keeping of the Sabbath, just the avoidance of disturbances in Jerusalem during Passover. The point is that the people who objected were those who had a narrow interpretation of their faith which left no room for God.

Both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism started out as Pharasaic sects - the Sadducees and Romans (and Herod) governed Jerusalem, and after Massada, life for the rest of the Jewish people carried on pretty much as before, with a few less oppressors.

Anyway, some of the contributions to this thread remind me of Humpty Dumpty as reported by C Dodgson.