Pod the Alien Sketch : ‘What’s so special about Easter?’
Standard entrance (Compere responds to banging on the door) That must be Pod. (Spaceman enters)
Hello Pod
Hello Bee-Sissy. Are you having a good time?
Well we’ve not really started yet.
Hey you better had get started. Because this is a very special time of year you know.
Yes we know.
Yes, because it’s a bank holiday weekend.
That’s true, but it’s not just any bank holiday weekend…
That’s right, not any old bank holiday … it’s a double bank holiday weekend.
Yes, but it’s not the doubleness of it that make it so special…
I know, I know. It’s because it’s Easter. Happy Easter everybody!
And Easter is a very special time…
Yes, it’s a time for eggs.
But not just eggs
Ah I see you like the bacon
Bacon?!
Or is it the sausages? I like the mushrooms and fried tomatoes, myself.
What are you talking about Pod.
Why I am of course referring to the Olympic Breakfast. There is no finer way to enjoy a Happy Easter.
You really have got your wires crossed Pod. I think what you are talking about is a Happy Eater.
That’s right. Isn’t that what everyone does on a bank holiday?: Make an early start and then stop off at a Happy Easter for breakfast. We invented fried bread on my planet you know. My cousin Nobby first started a Happy Easter on the A303 near Wincanton. Look you can see him on the Menu… (Queue PPT of menu)… can you see the family resemblance? Yes he did very well for himself, cousin Nobby.
All that is most illuminating Pod, But what we are here to celebrate today isn’t a Happy Eater or a Little Chef for that matter. We are here to celebrate Easter Sunday, the day when Jesus rose to life.
Oh what a relief! That sounds much more interesting than a roadside café. Come on then, tell all.
What happened at the first Easter was that Jesus was crucified on the Friday, and was resurrected on the Sunday.
Whoa, whoa! You’re off to a full start there, Dobbin. No one here understands a word you’re saying.
Ah yes, Crucified and Resurrected. You don’t know what they mean, do you.
Of course I know what they mean. I just though that some of this lot looked a bit puzzled.
OK. Crucified; that was the way that Jesus was killed. By being nailed to a wooden cross, and left to die.
You mean Jesus is dead! That’s just awful. And such a good man as well, a great man. I can’t believe it.
And Resurrected; that means that even though he had died, God bought him back to life again.
Wow that’s just amazing, impossible even. Are you sure he hadn’t just fainted?
No, he had certainly been dead. A soldier stuck a spear in his side while he was still on the cross, and the blood that came out had separated, into a blood clot and clear stuff, which is what happens when a body dies.
So, OK he was really dead, but that doesn’t mean that he came back to life does it. Maybe someone, (and this sounds a bit sick admittedly) maybe someone stole his dead body?
No, no one ever found his body, but some people saw him alive afterwards.
Yeah? Not many, I’ll bet.
Quite a few did actually, on one occasion 500 people at once.
Whoa, that’s incredible. I suppose that’s what makes Jesus so very special does it? I mean that makes him more than just an ordinary man doesn’t it.
It means he proved who he said he was – the Son of God.
You know, I don’t think that coming back to life was the hard bit for Jesus.
No?
No, what is a bigger surprise is that anyone could manage to kill God’s son in the first place!
But that was because Jesus let it happen.
No-way. Why would he let it happen, why would he want to get killed?
He knew that if he took the punishment, then we wouldn’t have to. You see, each one of us is separated from God, from the day we’re born. We don’t know God, we don’t have friendship with him, we think only of what we want, and not what God might want for us.
Hang on. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
And that kind of attitude, that kind of lifestyle; a life lived separated from God, leads to a death that is separated from God too. But because Jesus took that punishment, he offers us the everlasting life, and friendship with God that would have been the result of his perfect life.
So, no one took His life from Him. He gave it up?
You see, because Jesus died we are forgiven, and because Jesus came alive again, we can have life too. All we have to do is believe it and it’s ours. Jesus has done it all for us because he loves us so very much.
Wow, I see now why you think Easter is worth celebrating. Jesus did all that, in just a bank holiday weekend?
That’s right, and all because he loved us and wanted our friendship back. Before any of us had a name, before any of us were even born. That’s how big God’s love is.
Cool! You know I’ve learn something really important on this trip: that Jesus loved you so much that he gave his life up so that you could be forgiven, and rose to life so that you could share life with him. That’s a big God. Anyway you’ll be wanting to get on with your celebrating, and I should be going. I’m a little peckish, and I’m sure I can smell bacon cooking somewhere. Good-byeGood-bye, Pod.
Standard exit (pod shuffles out the door and take off sequence is initiated).
© M Day 05-Apr-2004
Synopsis
More Pod pages
Downloads
– What’s so special about Easter? in pdf format
– Power point of Pod’s summer Landing sequence without intro
– Power point of Pod’s summer Take off sequence.
NB power points with intros feature a old fashioned movie-style leader countdown with ‘pearl & dead’ sound track. This is simply an attention grabber for when the Pod sketch has been an unannounced opener for a service. Only summer versions are available here (there are also winter versions to match the conditions outside the venue).