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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Emotion
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Anger
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It started out with a few shouts.
Then, the voices became a few more, and a few more until the whole crowd shouted: “Crucify him!
Crucify him!
Let his blood be on us and our children!”
What awful shouts.
What horrible cries screamed out that day.
And why?
Why would the Jewish mob have cried out for everlasting guilt to be on them and their children?
They simply didn’t believe that there was any everlasting guilt.
They thought that all the guilt belonged to the beaten and battered Nazarene carpenter that stood in front of him.
After all, it was that man that had pretended to be the long awaited Messiah.
He had misled the people of Israel, given them false hope!
And so Jesus’ trickery deserved the worst that the Romans could offer.
He deserved the mockery, the crown of thorns, the beatings.
Crucifixion is too good for him, they thought!
But the problem was not in Jesus, it was in the people.
They didn’t want the salvation that Jesus had come to bring.
What about us?
Do we ever stray too close or tip toe the line that that unholy crowd crossed?
Do we expect something from God that he never promised, or reject what he has offered through his Son’s death?
For those times that we have, tonight we pray: *Forgive us when we despise your great salvation!
*For *we sometimes demand earthly blessings that have not been promised, *and so *Father, fix our eyes on the needs of our souls.*
*1.
*Travel back in time to that awful day.
Watch intently as the Roman governor stands before you and the rest of the crowd and loudly asks: *Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ?*
As Pilate brings forth both Barabbas and Jesus, the elders and the chief priests tap those next to you on the shoulder and whisper something in their ears.
Pilate asks again: *Which of the two do you want me to release to you?*
The collective voice of the crowd shouts out: *Barabbas!*
Stunned, Pilate responds: *What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Christ?*
And the crowd grows louder and louder: *Crucify him!
Crucify him!
Crucify!*
As Pilate claims innocence from Jesus’ blood the mob shouts even louder: *Let his blood be on us and on our children!*
Why? How? How could they demand such a grievous death, such horrible torture of the man they had, just a few days ago, hailed as the “Son of David” and the promised “King of Israel?”
It may be absurd to us today, but look at the first century world through the eyes of that mob.
For as long as they could remember, they had been waiting for the Messiah.
Some of their earliest memories were being taught about the Messiah and they longed to see his arrival.
It was their greatest wish, as if they could almost taste it!
Oh, how joyous it was when prophecies of the coming Messiah were read during Sabbath worship!
Over and over again they read about him in the Holy Scriptures – from the prophecies that Moses recorded to the ones Malachi wrote down.
The members of that mob could quote all those prophecies: the ones that spoke of the wonders that Messiah would perform to triumph after suffering to the eternal crown that would adorn his head.
And yet, their desire for the coming Messiah was not, perhaps, quite the same desire the writers of the Old Testament had meant.
The Jews of Jesus’ time wanted salvation that was not the same salvation the prophets wrote about.
Israel wanted salvation all right – salvation from Roman rule, NOT salvation from sin.
They wanted their national pride to be restored – a restoration of their relationship with God could wait.
These thoughts, these misconceptions, morphed into a whole ‘nother beast altogether.
They became some grand fantasy that was shared by a majority of those in Israel.
The majestic King messiah would appear in the sky and descend into the courts of the great temple.
He would raise his voice, and the armies of the people would flock to his call.
Rank by rank they would go out from Jerusalem.
They would be invincible in battle – after all, the messiah was on their side!
– and the Romans and all other enemies of the Jews would be brought to vengeance.
Their city, that beloved city of Jerusalem, would be the greatest city in the world and all people would be forced to acknowledge the greatness of Israel and their messiah-King.
And they had truly though that their messiah-King had arrived.
He was Jesus of Nazareth!
After all, look at all the miraculous signs he had performed!
Listen to how well he spoke!
*When the Christ comes*, some asked, *will he do more miraculous signs than this man*?
(John 7:31).
And so, they tried to force him to become their bread-king after he fed the five thousand.
Rumors were spread that he had actually raised a man from death in Bethany.
More and more stories about Jesus’ power were traded.
And then they saw him coming, just as the prophet had said, *Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.*
(Zec 9:9) And in awe they removed their cloaks and laid them on the ground before him.
They eagerly cut down palm branches and strew them in his path.
They shouted: *Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!* (Matt 21:9)
My, what a difference five days can make.
The same people who had shouted “Hosanna!”
now stood in the Roman courtyard.
They watched as Pilate brought out Jesus.
How shocked they must have been to see him – no longer triumphant – standing there bloodied and beaten.
The man who had triumphantly ridden in on Sunday could now barely stand on Friday.
The man for whom they had laid their robes and palm branches now wore a purple rob and a crown of thorns in mockery.
The Romans were laughing at the Messiah – and through him at all of Israel!
Here’s your King!, they were saying.
Here’s your messiah!
The man you though would conquer Rome, well, by Rome he’s conquered!
Imagine their anger!
In their eyes, Jesus had betrayed his promise to them.
He was not the messiah they were looking for.
Where was the victory over Rome?
Where was the glory for Israel?!
They let their anger vocalize as they shouted: *Crucify him!
Crucify him!*
We would never join in such shouts.
No, no indeed.
Our sins of disloyalty may never end in shouts of murderous rage.
And yet, we too can fall into the trap of thinking that, somehow, our Lord is not living up to promises that he never actually made to us.
We may not reject the salvation of our souls.
It’s what we’ve been taught for so many years.
We heard the Bible stories while sitting at those short Sunday school tables.
We learned about our salvation during confirmation or Bible information classes.
We confess what Christ has done for us in our creeds and we know what Lent and Good Friday are ultimately all about.
Yet that all seems to be stuck in the past while the struggles of our day to day lives face us here and now.
We are tempted to think that salvation will be important as we near our death-beds, but perhaps we ought to be able to expect more from Christ than just that.
This idea has always floated around Christianity.
Just turn on the TV preachers and you will hear it preached sermon after sermon.
There’s this idea that once you become a Christian the bumpy road that we call life will be smoothed out and leveled; that all troubles will vanish and we’ll glide through this life to life everlasting.
After all, he claimed that *all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to [him]* (Matt 28:18) so shouldn’t he use that authority to make us rich and give us easy lives?
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