We sometimes fail to understand or even try to understand the Pharisees. Though some of them were adversaries of Jesus, mostly they seem to have been good people, devout Jews, who were meticulous in practising their faith and were trying to do what was right and pleasing to God. Their piety goes somewhat awry when in their seemingly smug self-righteousness they categorize people into different levels of or leagues of sanctity and judge others to be less observant and only minor league believers or, as in the case of tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers and others, so corrupt as to be completely unworthy of God's love and concern and so they sometimes run afoul of Jesus.

Jesus teaches and is God's love and cares for every human being. There is not nor ever was or will be a human being that God doesn't love and want to redeem. Jesus calls us and chooses his closest disciples not from among the religious superstars of his day but from the minor leagues, from the misfits or from among those who have been disinvited. But Jesus still had friends and followers among the Pharisees.

Jesus loved his adversaries. He did not exclude anyone, not even those from the opposite ends of the spectrum or those in the middle of the spectrum. He sought to bring light to those in darkness, sight to those who were blind and wholeness to those who were fractured.