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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Intro:
How do you picture Jesus?
What is your tendency when imagining God?
What are some instances when Jesus may have thrown His head back and laughed or had a twinkle/sparkle in His eye?
Do you think God intends for us to have fun and not take life so serious?
Why/why not
Festivals
Weddings
Bride/Groom
Spunky Faith
What are your thoughts after reading this dialogue?
Look at the preceding verses and their conversation
Consider the disciples and their heart that desired to follow Jesus.
Consider the woman whose faith caught Jesus’ attention
Does it seem possible that God could be impressed?
We see this woman had two strikes against her
What are they?
Canaanite—foreigner, an outsider
Woman—not respected at this time
Jesus respected her though
In Matthew 15:22
What are your initial observations of this woman?
What was her request?
In what ways were the people to be cautious yet compassionate toward foreigners?
The leaders rather than being cautious yet welcoming, stopped all interaction with them.
What does Jesus say about the condition of the religious leaders’ hearts?
Why did he call the religious leaders hypocrites?
What the woman is /is not:
Clearly desperate
Daughter is demon possessed
Knows she has no right to ask anything of JEsus
Not a Jew
Not a disciple
Offers no money
Makes no promises to devote herself to ministry service
*Jesus doesn’t owe her anything/YET she is asking Jesus for everything
But that doesn’t stop her
Jesus gave her no reply
Why?
Could it have been to test her?
To see how serious she was about her plea?
OR
Could it be Jesus was admiring her “Spunky” faith?
Look at the issue preceding the conversation with the woman.
What was the Pharisees issue with Jesus?
How did Jesus describe the Pharisees?
What did Jesus mean when He said they nullified the word of God for the sake of their tradition?
(vs 7-9)
Could it have been refreshing to Jesus to have someone ask Him to do what He came to do—give great gifts to unworthy children?
but the appeal to Jesus as Son of David is striking in the mouth of a Gentile
and thought the title would please this Jewish visitor; but the developing dialogue (esp.
v. 27) suggests a more sophisticated awareness of the significance of Jesus’ role as the Jewish Messiah.
But her argument that dogs do at least get the crumbs, while it rejects the implied refusal of her request, accepts Jesus’ basic position, that his primary mission is to Israel.
But that mission allows others to share in Israel’s blessings, if only as a secondary effect.
If she is only a ‘dog’, at least let her have the dog’s rations!
The response is surely no less tongue-in-cheek than Jesus’ teasing challenge.
Consider all of this, why do you think Jesus WOULD have been “impressed with the Canaanite woman’s simple faith?
Are you ever reluctant to receive or accept God’s gift?
Have you known someone who is reluctant to accept?
Why do you think people are at times reluctant to accept good things from God?
Obviously the religious leaders were creating hoops to hop through—which presents God as a trainer
In your relationship with God, how do you tend to create religious hoops in order to “earn” God’s grace?
No-one else receives from Jesus the accolade Great is your faith!
(though again the centurion is the nearest equivalent, see 8:10)
Was it merely her persistence in expecting a response despite apparent refusal (‘by faith, not by sight’)
Or is there also the idea of her spiritual perception in recognizing both the primary scope of Jesus’ mission to Israel and also the fact that that was not to be its ultimate limit?
She thus, like the centurion, foreshadows the time when the true Israel will transcend the boundaries of culture and nationality
The Canaanite woman had no resume,
no claimed no heritage,
she had earned no degree
Two things she knew: her daughter was weak/sick
Jesus was strong
She did not rely on her heritage, race, knowledge, the law—she relied on Jesus and His grace.
A Sincere Speaker
Look at the disciples response.
**Sometimes the convenient way is not necasasarily Jesus’ way.
Different thoughts on why Jesus responded the way He did:
Jesus was trapped—Couldn’t help her because He could only go to the lost sheep of Israel (Centurion, Samaritan woman)
Jesus was rude—He was tired, long trip, disciples coming along slowly
(compassion on the 5,000, wept over Jerusalem
He was testing her—most popular was she serious about her need—but by insinuating she is a dog?
Could this have been a satirical banter?
Obviously Jesus chose to make an example out of the Canaanite woman.
Jesus had just been with the Pharisees who would have called her a dog and meant it.
He had been with religious rulers, who would never have shared their bread much less the same room with a Gentile woman.
He had been with the Jewish elite who questioned His claims and doubted His authority.
So imagine how sweet her first word sounded to Him “Lord”—she had made Him Lord before even meeting Him.
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