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
0.6LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Intro
Intro
There’s something about a good story
Sometimes you find yourself caught up in one even when you’re really not in the mood.
The legend of Arabian nights tells of a beautiful princess imprisoned and in danger of losing her life.
She pleads for the opportunity to tell the sultan a story
Being granted her one opportunity at life she tells such a gripping story that the sultan desires another, then another
Saved by a story
A rather ironic thought considering the story we’re about to hear from Jesus
A powerful story
It was a tense moment
Explain trap set for Jesus
Jesus response and story of the sons
Confrontation of
Robes whirled and dust rose as those religious leaders turned on their heals.
You could see the steam rising from their collars, faces red
If looks could kill Jesus would have died a thousand deaths
Common sense demanded that Jesus move on to safer topics
Find some middle ground, build some bridges.
But to their backs he said, “listen to another parable.”
And they stopped in their tracks
Could he be that audacious?
Would he really add insult to injury in their own house?
Why didn’t they just walk away and put an end to this nightmare?
But who can resist a good story
And with one more line Jesus has them hooked in spite of themselves
“Once there was a landowner who planted a vineyard”
A couple of the Levites wondered just what game he was playing at.
Technically they weren’t supposed to own land.
But you know how it is in these times.
Responsible stewardship and insurance for the future demanded prudent investing
Several of the Pharisees probably wondered if this story was about them.
They could almost see their own vineyards outside the city from where they stood.
Once there was a landowner who planted a vineyard.
And it was a beautiful vineyard
There was a stone wall
And in one corner he even thought to build a watchtower to protect his investment
And then there was the winepress built right on site.
No difficult transport
You could pick the grapes, press and bottle all in one convenient location.
Being a busy man with other obligations he leased out the vineyard for a share of its production.
The tenants cared for the property well.
The harvest proved abundant and wine pressing was in full swing when someone from the watchtower saw the landowner’s representatives coming down the road.
They never made it to the gate.
Stones came flying at them over the wall.
One servant was knocked unconscious, another was killed outright by the rocks.
A third managed to escape the barrage only to meet with a brutal beating
While the beaten servant looked on they finished their grisly deed with a final blow to the unconscious man lying in the road.
Then they dispatched that one remaining servant with a message of their own back to the landlord.
But the landlord had invested far too much to let such thuggery steal his rightful portion of the harvest.
Other messengers came and more violence followed.
Finally the owner dispatched his own son thinking, “Surely they will respect my son.”
By now the whole crowd is waiting with baited breath.
All the anger that had been focused on Jesus moments ago got temporarily redirected to horrible injustice those tenants were perpetrating on a generous landlord.
You could almost hear someone wanting to shout out to the son, “No, don’t go.”
But Jesus isn’t finished yet.
The son appears coming down the road.
The watch in the tower reports this latest development and a hurried conference is convened.
The opportunity of the moment can’t be missed.
“This is the heir to this land.”
If we kill him, there’s nothing standing in the way of us taking this for our own.
And they let the son of the owner come all the way inside the gates.
Maybe even greet him as a friend
And then the murder blow falls
His body is tossed into the street
They can’t help themselves now, these religious leaders.
Their blood boils as they imagine such a tragedy in their own lives.
And Jesus baits the hook with a question.
“When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
The answer is so obvious it is impossible to hold back.
Without thinking they respond exactly on cue.
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they said.
I wonder if any of them suspected the trap
I wonder if hands were going to their mouths even as they pronounced the sentence.
But the words had already started and it was impossible to stop
“He will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop.”
The hook was set, now Jesus reels them in
He goes back to a quote they had preached a thousand times.
Back to the Psalms
Back to a reference that had so many times brought assurance of God’s blessing to their endeavors.
It’s a short passage that never failed to remind them of a little story about the first temple.
It’s a short passage that never failed to remind them of a little story about the first temple.
It’s a short passage that never failed to remind them of a little story about the first temple.
Built right on the sight they were standing on
Solomon’s temple was the standard, the evidence of past glory when Israel was free and God was almost tangible in his presence.
Each block for that massive edifice was quarried off site, in some cases miles away
Cut to precise dimensions and marked it was then transported to the site and assembled without any tool work on the temple grounds.
The stones began to come and the foundations for the courtyard when in.
Early on, the builders came to one stone that seemed not to fit any of the spaces where rocks were needed.
It was a massive stone with no place to go.
They moved it to the side, but it remained a constant source of frustration.
People tripped over it, it got in their way.
Finally they got enough men together to get that monstrosity out of the way and it was dumped with the trash
The time came for the laying of the cornerstone for the temple itself.
Messages were sent to the stone cutters demanding the cornerstone be sent.
Messages returned reminding the workers that said stone was already on site.
Only then did someone remember the stone with no place that had been in the way.
After some searching they finally located it off to the side, hidden in the weeds
That story never failed to leave people praising God for how he works in spite of our failings
It left them with a nice warm feeling that somehow God was watching out for his special people.
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