My Lords, my Ladies, and everyone else to poor to buy a peerage under the present government! It is my pleasure, nay, my privelage, my honour to introduce to you a man of such stature, such eloquence, and such sobriety that we are not worthy of his corpulence. His Father, Marcus of Australia, is renowned throughout the Western shores, a man whose deeds I am not able to recall at this point. I first met him in the backwaters of Tasmania where he laboured long and hard in his knighthood training. Whilst there he did distinguish himself as a friend to man and beast, being the first to jump the rocks of death at Diamond Gorge Launceston - flying through the air like a winged sea bass!
He has spent two long years away from his family, far from familiar shores, in order that he would better understand how to serve the British Empire. A man so devoted to the Queen that he wears a crown and robe behind closed doors, and sleeps with her picture above his bed. A man so pure that his sweat is drinkable; so modest that you will never hear him swear or curse; and a man so brave that dragons fear his name.
Adults want to be him; Children want to be like him; Women want to be near him; Animals want to smell him..... We sit in the aroma of his greatness, smelling the stench of his intrepidation! The one, the only, a man who needs no introduction but has one anyway..... Zachariah Holt!
And then I said...
It’s kind of cool getting an introduction like that eh. We all have stories that we’re proud of, cool stuff we've done that we'd kind of like other people to know. But we can’t tell these stories ourselves coz we'd come across arrogant. But if someone else tells these stories, it might be a little bit embarrassing, but really we kind of enjoy the fact that others know our greatest achievements, the best things that we've done. But what if I said Guy was going to come back up here and introduce you. Only, instead of telling everyone all the best stuff about you, he was going to list your worst moments, all the things you are most ashamed and embarrassed of...? And we’ve all got these stories don’t we, the stuff we hide, our worst secrets that we dread other people finding out, things that can still cause us to feel guilt and shame, even years after the fact.
When I was 12 I was at a BBQ in a park with my family. My sister and I were on the playground and Dad called us from across the field and said it was time to go and so we started to run back. Part way there, for no reason at all, I tripped my sister up. I don’t know what I was thinking and I could never explain why I did this, but one moment my precious little sister was smiling and laughing as she ran, and the next she's in a heap on the ground crying and bleeding and hurt and she's bitten halfway through her tongue.
In one moment I’d caused her a month of pain. I was, I still am, so ashamed of what I did, it was like I was dying inside.
The bible tells us that all have sinned, everyone of us falls short. And there is a consequence; “the wages of sin is death”, both physical death and the internal death we feel inside when we mess up, the guilt and shame and sorrow that we feel because we know that what we've done is wrong.
I want to show you a clip from the film. (watch from 7 minutes to the end of the clip)
When William, or Ulrich, first meets Chaucer he’s walking down the road naked, they presume him to have been robbed. In this clip we see that the real reason Chaucer was naked is that he has a gambling problem and literally lost everything.
Kind of like the consequence of sin, Chaucer faces being beaten by his creditors, probably quite severely, and his only hope lies with the man he lied to, who has no reason to help him.
I want to introduce someone else to you at this point:
He was born to two teenagers, presumed illegitimate by the scandal surrounding his birth, he grew up in Egypt because the king of his own country wanted him dead. He returned to his hometown with his parents some years later where he grew into a strapping young man, wise and respected. He spent three years teaching great crowds, impressing all from the most common of peasants to the rulers of the day. He cared for the sick and the poor, he had time and love for those rejected by all others, he performed many great works and miracles and was hailed by many as the foretold Messiah or saviour. His name is Jesus, the Son of God.
And unlike every one of us, he had never sinned. He never stuffed it up. And so like Will in the film, he was the only one who could clear the debt. And so, he did.
The wages of sin is death, and so the only price that could clear the debt was Jesus’ own death, a price he paid on the cross. The story is not over there though, three days later God raised Jesus from the dead. The price was paid and so God was free to undo the effects of sin, and free us from death.
I want to show you one more clip, right from the end of the film. (Watch the first one minute and twenty seconds of this clip)
And the point is this: You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting… But forgiven. Welcome to the new world.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Because of what he did we can come to the Father and receive the forgiveness that he purchased for us.
