Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Luke 23:13-25
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  March 9, 2022

A young man wants to stay out till midnight but his parents want him home at 10:00 pm. They end up agreeing on 10:30 pm. It’s called a compromise; both sides meet in the middle, make concessions, in order to come to an agreement. And usually, compromise is a mature thing to do. Reasonable people make compromises. But tonight, as we look at Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, we’ll see that not all compromises are reasonable, and we will learn to avoid unreasonable compromise in our own lives as well.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor over the region of Judea. His tenure ran from A.D. 26-36, though some recent research shows that his duties may have begun in A.D. 19. With either set of dates, to hold such an extended period of service in an area as volatile and politically touchy as Judea shows that Pilate was a shrewd ruler. He had even maintained a modicum of peace in these years, stifling  rebellions, enforcing laws, and, as he was engaged this fateful day, deciding matters of supreme law. 

The Jewish leaders brought Jesus to him, salivating for a crucifixion. They state their initial charge against Jesus like this, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.” They massage their false charges so Pilate would sense maximum danger to Roman power. They feign concern for the dominion of the Romans they so despise in order to kill Jesus. Pilate then proceeds to question Jesus about these charges quite objectively and in the end he says this: “I have found in this man no basis for the charges you are bringing against him….See, he has done nothing worthy of death. 16 So I will have him flogged and release him.”

Here Pilate offers what sounds like a reasonable compromise. Pilate knows the Jewish leaders have arrested Jesus on obviously false charges and he knows there is nothing they can do to overrule his judgment of innocence. But Pilate is smart. He offers them a chance to save face by beating Jesus severely and having him publicly whipped. It’s a reasonable compromise. Pilate saves this man, Jesus, from the worse fate that the chief priests intended for him while also catering to them and averting an uprising. As a nice side benefit, he was padding his position as governor. It was calculated, it was shrewd, it was, in his mind, reasonable. 

But ultimately, the volume of voices crying for crucifixion caused Pilate to move from compromise to total collapse. He handed Jesus over to them. And though he tried to publicly wash his hands of Jesus’ blood, they will remain eternally crimson. Why every Sunday is a day of infamy for Pilate, as millions of Jesus’ people stand and declare that the Lord himself ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified.’ So much for his reasonable compromise…And yet I think that most of us probably find more sympathy for Pilate than for the others who took part in Jesus’ death, not because he was innocent, but simply because we also know what it’s like to make seemingly reasonable compromises under pressure.

When it comes to dealing with sin, we often figure that if we give in to temptation partially, the pressure will be satisfied.  We tell ourselves that if we give in partially to the temptation, it will release just enough pressure to keep us from exploding into some greater sin that would be more damaging to others. We soothe our consciences by thinking that we avoided the greater harm, just as Pilate probably did when he made his offer to flog Jesus. We don’t want to cheat on our spouses, so perhaps a little pornography will help us alieviate the urge. We want to fit in at school or work so we compromise our words with crude jokes and foul language. We don’t want to sound backwards in 2022, so we decide to throw out God’s Word on gender and sexuality under societal pressure, hoping to maintain our Christian faith and still fit in. These may all present themselves as reasonable compromises, but they are not. Deep down, I think we know that they are really quite unreasonable.

There are at least two flaws in this kind of compromise. First, to justify sin by saying that it prevents a greater sin implies that those were the only two choices we had. This is a false dichotomy that presents only two options when there are actually many options. It’s a logical fallacy, by definition unreasonable. In most cases, the choice to do what is right exists, even when we pretend it doesn’t. In most cases, we choose to compromise, not because we are seeking to please God, but because we have put something on the same level as God, and are willing to make concessions in our obedience or reverence for him in order to worship a different desire or loyalty. The second flaw in unreasonable compromises is the thought that the devil will settle for a compromise when it comes to your soul. Destruction is Satan’s goal. He isn’t content to nibble at you and then walk away. The Bible says he wants to devour us. Giving into sin willingly—even part of the way—sends a clear message to him: You are willing to compromise. You are willing to give him a part, so he may as well go for the whole.

It’s like the game of Jenga. You never start a game of Jenga and leave the tower standing. You play until it falls. The same is true with the Devil. If we are willing to give him a few blocks, he will keep pulling at us until our faith collapses. He plays to win us body and soul forever. There is no reasonable compromise when it comes to faith. Our theme for this lenten season is the crucial hours. I hope that you are able to sense just how crucial those moments are when you are tempted to make unreasonable compromises. They will present themselves as the perfect option to please everyone, but see through that mask. Do not give in. Don’t ever make a concession to sin! Honor God with all heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Thank God that Jesus didn’t compromise when he came to this earth as our substitute. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of the Gethsemane, he didn’t say, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. And if it’s not possible, how about I drink 90% of it? That’s as far as I’m willing to go.” Nor did Jesus say on the cross, “It is finished. At least, most of it is, anyway. You need to handle the rest. I’m done.” No, he paid the full price. He didn’t compromise our salvation in any way. Through his suffering and death, we find relief to know that all our unreasonable compromises are forgiven. We find, through his unjust crucifixion, that we are declared innocent in God’s sight. Jesus’ single-minded dedication, which crushed the Devil’s head, gives us peace and certainty of our victory over Satan as well.

I don’t know about you, but that certainty makes me want to give everything I am to God. I don’t want God to have part of my life. I want him to have my workweek and my weekends. I want him to have my marriage and my family. I want him to have my thoughts and my dreams. I don’t want to be reasonable as many people consider the term. I don’t want to compromise my faith in any way. Let them think me odd or extreme, but I want to be entirely dedicated to him—not in part but in whole. It’s only reasonable to surrender all to him who refused to compromise anything for our sake. Amen.