Pyrrhic Victories

As I read and understand Jesus' ministry, I don't find many occasions in which He saw a need to rebuke a person's sins but have unexpectedly found quite the opposite. When Jesus met the rich man who thought he had no sin, Jesus did not say, "Look here, these are the laws you have not obeyed (after all, who hasn't lusted in their hearts or been unforgiving to someone)," but rather Jesus said, "Sell all you have and give to the poor." He focuses on the sins of omission rather than the sins one's committed. Why? Allow me to illustrate. I'm a squad leader directing 10 men to attack an enemy stronghold at the top of a hill. Our commander has ordered me to take the objective at all cost. Everything else is negligible compared to this one mission. As we advance, my soldiers are pinned down by various snipers who detract them from our primary purpose. Should I allow them to search and destroy these pesky harassers or should I rally them together to charge up the hill and win the war for our side? As we defeat the snipers, we may win the battles, but inevitable we will lose the war. Killing the snipers is what we'd refer to as a pyrrhic victory, one in which a triumph occurs but is offset by so large a cost in losses that in the larger scheme, we've really lost. We must figure out what wins the war and avoid the skirmishes with those things meant to keep us from accomplishing our mission.