Sometimes it's easy to love your enemy.

Specifically one who is blatantly so. Whether your arch rival in a sport or your nemesis in a classroom or drama setting, you know they're the "bad guy" and it's easier to identify the calling to give them grace.

But what about the pharisees?

What about those annoying awful people who won't stop shooting sarcasm and apologizing with, "I was just kidding?" What about people who drop little nuggets of irritating comments, or argue for the sole pleasure of winning?

I'll use the illustration of Edmund Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia. Don't remember him?

Here he is, making his little skeptical face of judgement. Typical Edmund, right? We're shown in the movie, (as well as the book, if you're cool enough to read it) that he's the mocker, the one who makes fun of his siblings the most, the one who doubts and exploits the goodwill of others.

Then he goes off and does something, really terribly, horribly wrong (no spoilers here! Go read it. Or watch it). And everyone's booing. The siblings, even though they love him, are astonished and ashamed of their brother. They tell him so. The other creatures treat differently and with suspicion because of his choices. They result in dire consequences, which the Christ-figure Aslan takes on as his own.

But not until after all the hullabaloo.

Some may remark, "Gee, Aslan, why didn't you do the cool thing before all the humiliation, so Edmund could have been spared?"

Let's look at the real world example, the pharisees. These were the heavy weights of the law, those who lived their lives and formed their purposes around upholding the truth of the Almighty Judeo-Christian God. They made sacrifices to become the greats.

Then this Jesus kid showed up, showing them up. Truths dropped right and left and soon these men of power, whether they understood they were powerful or not, felt threatened. So they became the scoffers. The mockers. The ones who humiliated for the sake of keeping their feelings intact. Sounds like Edmund 1.0, with the only exception being the Pharisees knowingly send Jesus to their death, while Edmund does so almost unwittingly.

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees. He corrects them with strong words and a stronger truth, leaving those who scorned him jealous and angry.

But he loved them anyway.

Yes, he had to rebuke and correct them, which may have not looked loving or caring to any of those around. Frankly, it probably looked like a theological rap battle. He went to the cross for them anyways. When he rose again, the grace and redemption of salvation was extended to them as well. We know many chose to ignore the olive branch and pursued vengeance against Jesus' followers. What we don't know is how many chose to accept his gift.

If we're called to be like Christ, we're called to love the Pharisees. We don't have the authority to chastise or belittle them; frankly, I don't believe Jesus did either - he was correcting them. But he did it out of love. Not because he wanted to be right, or better, but because he loved them too.

I am not condoning rebuking and chastising someone you think is a loudmouth; what I am challenging you to do is to view them through the eyes of Christ. Take up his limit of grace and mercy and extend it to them, and let the source of your action be rooted in that.