God Loves Pharisees

Recently I was at a student development retreat where we were discussing the parable of the prodigal son. Now I loves me a good student development retreat, and I also loves me a good parable. As usual, Jesus tells an awesome story, the Pharisees get mad, and then they talk about killing Jesus. Years later some pastor says "lets take another look at this story and try to see it in it's appropriate context." That's code for "throw the pharisees under the bus."

Which, in most ways is appropriate to do. Pharisees will always be the poster child for "missing the point" because they had front row seats to the biggest person and biggest event in history, and were too focused on making sure they gave a tenth of their spices to the temple every Saturday and nit-picking the savior of the world for not washing his hands before he ate.

So I get the point. We are right to criticize the pharisees, especially because it usually seems like Jesus is doing it too. But Jesus is only doing it to make a point. If Jesus could love tax collectors, prostitutes, and the roman soldiers that were nailing him to the cross, he could probably also find it in His heart to love religious leaders who missed the point. (Granted, they did quite a bit of harm in his name).

All I'm saying is that Jesus loved everyone, and even though the pharisees were blowing it big time, they were trying. Which is probably the same thing you would say about me. Its just good to remember that we are all on the same side here and even though Pharisees will always judge sinners, it doesn't mean that sinners like us should always be judging pharisees.

(Although, I realize that pharisees are sinners, and I'm both a sinner and a pharisee at times)