Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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There’s something different about this story of Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem.
Sure, it’s got all the familiar elements - the palm branches, the singing, the most talked about donkey in all of history.
But it also has these two competing conclusions.
On the one hand, you have the resignation of the Pharisees.
They see the crowds, hooting and hollering and otherwise fawning over Jesus, and they turn to one another and say “that’s it.
It’s over.
The whole world has embraced this guy as their leader.
we can’t possibly compete with that.”
I’m especially struck by the statement “the world has run off after him.”
How true, and yet how telling.
These respected leaders of the religious institutions of Israel cannot explain why they are no longer on top.
It’s not us who’ve changed, they conclude.
We’re the same as we’ve always been.
But the world has changed around us, and by remaining faithful to our tradition, we will become obsolete.
Even so, it is our tradition, and we will remain faithful.
Of course, we now know that their tradition would carry on for another two thousand years, even as many people actively tried to kill it.
The Pharisees would win the war of ideas among the various competing Jewish groups, and become the spiritual predecessors of modern Judaism, whose adherents number about 15 million strong.
But in that moment, it must have felt like the world was ending for them.
As the people were caught up in the fervor and excitement of the Jesus parade, it was as though they were no longer necessary.
So they were resigned to their fate, and utterly hopeless.
On the other side of the equation is the sense of resignation coming from Jesus himself.
He is counting the hours he has left to live, and knows their number is not very high.
He’s frighten.
He says so.
He says he’s greatly distressed.
But he holds out hope.
Hope that his impending death, and the events that death sets in motion, will do more good for the world than he managed while he lived.
That upon seeing him fall, more will rise up to carry his message into the world.
That his greatest glory was yet to be revealed.
He, too, is resigned to his fate, but he is filled with hope.
As we enter this Holy Week together, there are many among us who think they see the writing on the wall.
The world has run off and left them behind.
There’s nothing left to do but finish out the string.
That wasn’t true for the Pharisees, it wasn’t true for Jesus, and it’s not true for you.
I’m not saying everything’s going to work out just fine - it didn’t for Jesus.
A few days after this encounter, he was executed.
It didn’t for the Jews, either - a passing familiarity with history will tell you that where the Pharisees’ way of life is concerned, the worst was yet to come.
But even if your darkest days are still ahead, your best days are, too.
The end may seem like it’s near, but we worship a God who says that even at the very end, and beyond, there remains hope.
That hope may look nothing like you imagined.
It may not comply with any of your plans.
But there is hope, nonetheless.
Hope that whatever it is you are facing, however bleak it may seem, there is still the potential for future glory.
Hope that your present suffering is not meaningless.
Hope that your memory, your faith, and your legacy will not only outlive you, but accomplish more than you could have on your own.
And that’s why, even as we face the worst; even when we are distressed; even when the end is near, we can continue to worship.
The cries of the people who greeted Jesus that day were celebratory, yes, but they were also pleading.
“Hosanna!”
They shouted as Jesus passed by.
“Hosanna!”
The word itself is a word of begging or pleading.
When translated, it means something like “Please rescue us!”
The people, too, knew that they needed a savior, and they saw that savior in the person of Jesus.
So much so that even as they cried for salvation, they also declared him the king; the one who came in the name of the Lord.
They faced troubles, and yet Jesus gave them hope.
We are all in need of salvation.
We are all in need of hope.
Jesus offers both to all who ask.
Will you?
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