Pod the Alien Sketch : ‘What are you worth?’

New opening titles! (No narration needed. Pod bangs on the door, Compere opens the door, Pod enters)

Hello everybody
Hello Pod
Hello Wendy, what’s been going on here then? Have I missed much?
Well yes, you have actually, quite a bit
Oh no! What have I missed, what have I missed?!
We’ve been looking at the question: “What are you worth”. And surprisingly, it’s been quite a tricky question to answer
That’s not a tricky question. It’s not tricky at all. You just need help of a superior being
Oh, and I presume we are in the presence of a superior being?
Indeed you are. Indeed… you are. Yes, I can manage all manner of difficult questions. Come on then don’t hold back. Fire away.
OK then. How would you answer the question “What are you worth?”
It’s quite simple: (grandly) You are worth what someone will pay for you.
Wow, Pod. That’s a very good answer. You make it sound so simple: Now I don’t want to sound picky, but it doesn’t quite cover everything does it?
I think you’ll find it does. Do I win a prize?
But what happens when nothing has been paid?
But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make any difference to what something’s worth.
But Pod, that’s the opposite of what you just said. You said that, “you are worth what someone will pay for you”. If no one has paid anything, does that mean you’re worth nothing?
Er, er… You’re twisting my words, and, and… you’re confusing all these short ones, too. I think you should explain yourself. Yes, explain yourself. Give us an example.
OK. Now, about your rocket, Pod…
What about my rocket. There’s nothing wrong with it!
No, it’s a fine rocket. But how much is it worth?
Oh, it’s worth a great deal of money, more than you could afford
And… how much would that be exactly?
Oooh, hundreds of.., no thousands.., no, probably millions of pounds
Really?… Didn’t I see a price label there somewhere?
Ah yes, there is one somewhere. What does it say?
Here it is. It says…”Sale, 50% off”
Well that would still be a great deal of money!
So what did you pay for it, Pod?
Well actually it did originally say £10, but I didn’t pay anything for it. I just found it… lying about… In a crater
Really? So what does that make it worth?
(sadly) Nothing, I suppose
Don’t be sad Pod. Of course it’s not worth nothing. It’s very important to you, isn’t it. But the thing is, if nobody’s paid for it, then we can’t be sure exactly how much it is worth. Do you see?
Yes, I see what you mean now. But what about people? How can they know what they worth?
Well that brings us back to the question that we need an answer for.
And I thought I had the answer to it. (sadly) But I really don’t know at all do I?
Cheer up, Pod. I’ve got good news for you. We can know what we’re worth, because someone has paid for us.
Wow that’s great! But who has done the paying, and why did they need to?
Jesus is the one who paid. And he needed to pay, to get us released.
Released? Why, have you all been in prison at some time?
No, of course not… but wait a minute, in a way, I suppose we have. Because it’s like we were locked away from God. It’s like our selfishness held each of us a prisoner. But Jesus chose to pay that price that would set us free. So we could be free to know our God.
Wow, that’s amazing. So how much did it cost him? And how much are you worth?
It cost Him everything he had: It cost him his life. So you see we know how much we’re worth, but not in terms of money. We are worth the life of Jesus.
But, that would be how much you are all worth together. How can you know how much you’re worth Wendy?
No, that’s how much each one of us is worth to God. You see your spaceship has a price tag on it that says £10. If each one of these people had a price tag on them, each one would read simply “Jesus”. Because that’s the price that God was prepared to pay
No, no, no. That doesn’t sound right. Even I know that Jesus was God’s son. How can each one of you be worth just same as Jesus?
Let me see. How about another example? You know the story of how Jesus died don’t you. He was nailed on a cross to die even though he had done nothing wrong. Well, there were two others who were killed at the same time. They had done things wrong; they had been bad enough to get the death sentence. One of the men asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom. The criminal had lost everything, he had nothing to offer Jesus, he didn’t even have any time to prove to him that he wanted to change. But Jesus said to him. “Today you will be with me in paradise”. So that criminal became the first Christian to go to heaven. Surely he was someone who should have been worth nothing. But Jesus accepted him and Jesus paid his ticket into heaven with his own life. If that criminal was worth the price of Jesus then so am I, and each one of these people is too. That’s why we love Jesus, and why we worship him.
Oh wow, I never knew that. I never knew that. I’ve been visiting you now for years, and I never knew. You are special people to be worth so very much to God. And I can see why you love him so much. You couldn’t not love a God that had paid so much to win your hearts: Boy oh boy! What a visit this has been! I thought I knew the answer, but I didn’t even understand how important the question was. I’ve learnt a lesson that I’ll never forget this time. I know now what you are worth, You are worth what God has paid for you, and he has valued you at the highest possible price. The value of the life of his only Son, Jesus. You couldn’t be worth more. Well thank you for having me again, I’ll definitely be back soon. See you all again, Goodbye.
Good-bye, Pod.

Standard exit (pod shuffles out the door and take off sequence is initiated).

© M Day 11-Feb-2003