Justice is about the most important characteristic of human beings - their Godlikeness. Homosexuals, for example, aren't just individuals who parade their gayness in Mardi Gras festivals. They're made in the image of God. And so are the people in church next to you this morning. There's probably something of the Pharisee in all of us.
Pharisees are people who know the Bible and miss the point.
The statement about 'trivializing the Pharisees' refers to several proble ms biblical scholars have about the Pharisees in the NT in general and Matthew in particular.