TRANSCRIPT Episode 29: Easter – he is risen

Leah Sax:
At Easter, we remember a true life saving story about death and resurrection. It continues the story started at Christmas the story of the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus, a baby born into the world to die. Now this baby is grown and is navigating life in his early 30s with his 12 closest friends, travelling the Middle East, teaching on mountains and in temples, calming wild seas with mere words, casting out demons, raising the dead to life, turning water into wine, and fracturing society by declaring that he was the one prophesied Saviour King in all the scriptures. But now the day has come. Jesus and his 12 closest friends eat one final meal together. They eat and drink and talk and sing. And then Jesus goes away to pray to his father. On his return, one of his inner circle, Judas, betrays him with a kiss. Jesus is handed over to the Roman governor, Pontious Pilate, who, despite seeing his innocence, gives way to the jeering crowds and sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. The soldiers strip him, put a scarlet robe on him, mock him, and place a crown of thorns on his head. Does this man really think he’s the king of the Jews? They spit on him. Strike him! He has nothing. They crucify him at Golgotha, nails in his hands. Jesus dies. At that very moment, the large, thick curtain in the temple is torn from top to bottom. The earth shakes, rocks split. Jesus is buried in a tomb. And then there is a day of silence. On the third day, there is another violent earthquake. The stone to the tomb is rolled away. He is not there. He has risen. He is alive.

Leah Sax:
Hello and welcome to episode 29 of Delight Podcast. I’m Leah Sax.

Adam Curtis:
Hello. And I am Adam Curtis and it is so exciting to be here. So exciting to have a whole episode on Easter, but it’s also very exciting. And I have to say in a smaller way, we have now hit over 10,000 listens and that is just wild, I know.

Leah Sax:
I also enjoy that we say we’re excited every single episode. We’re like, we’re so excited to be here.

Adam Curtis:
Just excited to be alive.

Leah Sax:
I know I also appreciate, Adam, that you’re doing a recording session with your very extra manly voice today, because you’re mildly under the weather.

Adam Curtis:
Yes, I am, Leah.

Leah Sax:
I know it’s been really quite amazing to hit over that 10,000 barrier. We’re actually well over it as of recording today, which is sometime in March 2025. We’re at 10,600. Brother, did you know?

Adam Curtis:
Oh come on. That’s. That’s good.

Leah Sax:
So to all of you who are new listening now or at some point in the future, 2032. Um, thank you for listening and being part of our Delight Podcast family. We have had quite the season so far. Last week we were with Rachel Meynell in disappointment.

Adam Curtis:
To say what a great episode it is when you’re talking about disappointment. Sounds a bit strange, but it was a great episode because I think to actually grapple with with our desires, our dreams and our hopes which aren’t met and fulfilled, I just think is a really helpful thing to do.

Leah Sax:
It’s the reality of the everyday living life, isn’t it?

Adam Curtis:
Yes, the everyday lived life. What a phrase.

Leah Sax:
What a phrase. It’s like that sanctification episode. It’s like the mundane. The everyday is how God is at work and how we can still have hope in God. They they kind of all sit together. Can I say, Adam? I am learning things from the podcast. Adam, you hinted at it today. What are we talking about in today’s podcast?

Adam Curtis:
Well, after your beautiful introduction. Hopefully everyone who’s listening has already clocked on to it. But we are talking about Easter. Three days that changed the world.

Leah Sax:
Easter time daffodils abound. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and mini eggs are readily available, and you can catch the lambing season on various TV farming shows and hot cross buns are now legitimately allowed every afternoon with a cuppa. Surely that’s what Easter is about getting the best Easter eggs for my niece and nephew and buying all the colourful flowers you can. Though it does seem that it’s turned into another way for our consumerist world to make money. Why should we celebrate Easter, Adam?

Adam Curtis:
Because it literally is the three days that changed the world. And that is such a dramatic sort of statement. It’s the heart of the Christian message. It’s the heart of the gospel, and it is absolutely reshaped reality. Thinking about my own sort of personal understanding of who God is. Actually, so much of that is wrapped up with what I see about God at Easter, but also just so much of the very fact that I can come to God and know Him as my Father and I am his child, is because of the events which happened at Easter. The very fact that I can have confidence that actually I’m going to spend eternity in his joy and in his bliss, and his presence is because of the events which happened at Easter. This is absolutely world changing. When you hear this news and you respond to this news, then. Oh, you’ve got to celebrate it. You’ve literally just there’s nothing else. There’s nothing else to do.

Leah Sax:
How do we know that all of this is true? All of the things that you spoke about, how do you know that any of them actually happened?

Adam Curtis:
Well, it’s interesting actually. How do we know this is true? Because there are actually loads of theories out there which says it’s not true. There’s five sort of theories and one fictional one about what are the alternatives. You have the wrong tomb. Simply that the women were so emotional and it was dark. They just went to the wrong tomb.

Leah Sax:
Those emotional women (!).

Adam Curtis:
Those emotional women (!), they weren’t told the disciples, disciples were so happy, they just ran into the town and told everyone the resurrection happened. The second theory is the hallucination theory that actually just all of Jesus’s followers just had this hallucination that he’d come back from the dead. The third theory is called the swoon theory, and I don’t know why it’s called the swoon theory, but I love it as a title. But that is basically that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, that he was injured, laid in the tomb, that somehow, after three days of bleeding, he was able to push aside a massive rock and get himself out. And he looked in such a state that everyone thought, no, this isn’t a man who’s a corpse or on the verge of death. But no, this is the resurrection and the life.

Leah Sax:
Is that why they swooned?

Adam Curtis:
Maybe that’s why they swooned. Then you have the fourth theory, which is the disciples stole the body of Jesus Christ and just lied to everyone. The fifth theory, which is linked to the fourth, is that the guards were just asleep, the ones who were guarding the tomb. And then you have the fictional one, which I don’t think anyone maybe people are claiming it’s true, but I don’t think anyone’s claiming it’s true. Is that Jesus had a had a twin, and this is a popularised in Philip Pullman’s The Good Man, Jesus and the scoundrel Christ the good man. Jesus died on the cross, but his twin, the scoundrel Christ, told everyone that he was the resurrection and the life.

Leah Sax:
I feel like I know the answer to this. Is that true, Adam?

Adam Curtis:
Praise the Lord. No, it’s not true. And it’s not true because Jesus did actually really die. Actually, the Romans are experts at killing people. So actually, when they put someone across, we can be pretty confident that that person is actually dead. Secondly, we read in the biblical accounts that a spear pierced Jesus’s side and that blood and water flowed out, and that happens when blood stops circulating around the body. Proof that he’s died. But also Jesus was actually buried. He really was buried. The tomb where Jesus was laid belonged to a man called Joseph of Arimathea. And he was quite a prominent, well respected individual.

Leah Sax:
When we say buried, do we mean just placing in a tomb? Right? It’s not actually like burying, like, underground.

Adam Curtis:
Yes, this would have been a common sort of, uh, way that people would have been buried back then. They would have dug out the rock and then would have laid someone within the rock, because it was actually easier to dig into a rock than to dig down into rocky ground. He was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. And that matters, because if you were making up this story, you wouldn’t choose an influential, well known individual and name them in your made up account. You would have chosen like a nobody, or you wouldn’t have even named it. But they’ve chosen an actual person who was known, because then you could actually go talk to that person and verify what’s gone on. But was the tomb actually empty? Yeah. It was. Jesus’s disciples, when they were telling everyone that he’d risen from the dead, the Jewish authorities could have just gone to the tomb and actually discovered his body and actually brought out his body and disproved it. But they couldn’t do that. So the tomb was actually empty. This news that Jesus Christ has risen, it changes the disciples. They’re terrified, absolutely terrified and scared. And they go from fear to faith, and in that position of faith, they start telling everyone that their Lord and Saviour has risen from the dead, and they refuse to stop telling people, even though ten of them are martyred for it. Now, would you actually die for something you know is a lie? Of course not. Who would die for something you know is a lie? They told people because they knew it to be the truth. And actually, the place where they were preaching is like the most hostile place. Jerusalem has just executed Jesus. The crowds have just cried for his crucifixion. And yet that is where the disciples went to go and preach. That would have been the easiest place for people to verify that Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, but they couldn’t do it because he actually had.

Leah Sax:
We talk about Jesus dying a lot as Christians. Why did Jesus have to die?

Adam Curtis:
Oh, Leah, as I was preparing this episode, I was like, we’re talking about so many big things in a tiny little episode, so can I just can I just say that we are not going to cover all the ground?

Leah Sax:
And that’s possibly also why I’m interviewing Adam, because we’re using his full reverend credentials on this one.

Adam Curtis:
So why did Jesus have to die? Well, let’s put it simply. He had to die to save sinners. If that’s all you hear from me answering that question, Jesus had to die to save sinners. He had to die to save sinners from the power of the evil one, like we see in, uh, in the story of Adam and Eve, that when the devil gets involved, when the evil one gets involved, humans lose. And that’s the story which happens again and again and again. And yet, even right in the beginning, God promises that someone is going to come. A descendant of Eve is going to come. Who is going to crush the serpent’s head? And that’s in Genesis 3:15. That is why Jesus had to die. He had to come to come and save us from the evil one, to crush the serpent’s head. But Jesus also saved sinners because he saves us from the power of sin itself. Like we read in Romans six that we’re slaves to sin, so we need someone who’s going to release us. We see in Scripture that actually God is angry at sin. That’s why he exiled Adam and Eve from the garden because of their sin. That’s why he exiled the people of Israel to Babylon because of their sin. He’s angry at sin. And so Jesus had to die because we’re guilty of sin. Actually, all of us are like David, who slept with another man’s wife and had her husband killed. And actually, we’re just as guilty as him of not loving God and not loving neighbour. We’re guilty of sin. And so Jesus had to die because we’re rebels. We’re like a son who says to the best father in the world, give me my inheritance. Now I would rather that you were dead and I had all your stuff. Then I had a relationship with you. We’re rebels. And that’s why Jesus had to die to save rebels.

Leah Sax:
Why is Jesus death the only way to deal with sin?

Adam Curtis:
Oh, that is a great question. Again it should be said. But let me just say two things. The first one, Romans chapter six, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Death is the punishment for sin. Death is the punishment for living lives where we don’t love God and we don’t love our neighbours. And so thus, we need someone who’s going to come and die for us, who’s going to be a substitute in our place. The second reason why death is central here is because within the Old Testament religious system, it’s all built around the temple and the sacrifices which are made at the temple, and the way in which the anger of God is appeased, is that a sacrifice is made on behalf of sinners. We see this throughout Leviticus and throughout the practices of the Old Testament people, and we see this then reaching its fulfilment in the coming of Christ, that he becomes that sacrifice which appeases the anger of God.

Leah Sax:
What then, has Jesus’s death achieved?

Adam Curtis:
Oh so many things, so many amazing things. And I would just at this point do a plug for John Stott’s the Cross of Christ. It is an absolute winner of a book which really explores this. And what is Jesus? Well, salvation for sinners. I’m now going to give you, Leah, for big Bible words propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. Boom!

Leah Sax:
All the ‘tions’, all the ‘tions’. I feel like.

Adam Curtis:
All the tions.

Leah Sax:
Notes here.

Adam Curtis:
So propitiation that means to appease or pacify someone’s anger. That’s the language of the temple that need for a sacrifice. Let’s just turn to one John chapter four.

Leah Sax:
I really enjoyed that. That was your vicar voice. Let’s just turn to 1 john.

Adam Curtis:
That was. That was my vicar.

Leah Sax:
I was like, and the funny thing is, immediately I took out my Bible and was like, yes, vicar. I thought I would turn to one, John. And then you have to wait till all the pages stop rustling and then I’m with you. I’m not with you. It’s further on than I thought it was, I found it. We’re good, we’re good.

Adam Curtis:
This is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The NIV there uses the word atoning, which is to be made at one with God. But this is the same idea of propitiation for you to appease or pacify someone’s anger. And God is angry at sin, and the punishment for sin is death. And so Jesus comes to pacify God’s anger. And the curious thing about that is that means God’s not angry at us anymore. Those who believe in Jesus Christ. Actually, God looks at us not with displeasure, but with joy. And that means we get to look at him, not with fear that we’re going to receive his judgement, but with our own joy that we get to be one in his presence. Next word redemption. This is a word which takes us to a different image, away from the temple and to the marketplace. To redeem something is to buy back, to pay its ransom. As soon as they’re in a pretty sorry state, but through the act of redemption of Jesus dying on the cross, actually we’re brought back. Christ is paid our Ransom, and he’s paid our ransom with his own blood so that now we actually belong to him. You can see that gloriously stated in revelation 5:9-10. Third word justification. Now, to be justified is to be declared right before God. And this is the language of the law courts. So we’ve moved from the temple to the marketplace to the law courts, and we stand before our righteous and good judge. And actually we’re declared guilty because of the lives that we have lived.

Adam Curtis:
But because of Jesus death on the cross, we can stand before our righteous and our good God, and we can be declared to be in the right. We’re no longer guilty. We’re declared in the right. And we actually gain access to this legal verdict, which is stated over us through faith in Jesus Christ. We read in Romans 5:9, we’ve been justified by his blood. Now, I once heard a sermon by Tim Keller, and I’m sure he probably put this in a book as well at some point.

Leah Sax:
Sounds like he sounds like him

Adam Curtis:
He spoke about the difference between forgiveness and justification. He says forgiveness says that you can go, you’re cleansed, you’re washed, you’re free. You’re no longer guilty. You can go. But justification says that you can come in, that you belong here. And that is just wonderful. Okay. Fourth word reconciliation. This now is the language of the home with friends and with family. And this takes us to the story of the prodigal son, of that son who ran away from his good father, who wanted him dead and his inheritance now and yet, actually, through Jesus death on the cross, that son who ran away from his father can now come home, and his father will run out to meet him, put a cloak on his shoulders, rings on his hands, shoes on his feet, killed the fatted calf. Have a massive celebration because they have now been reconciled. We have now been adopted because of the cross, because actually our price has been paid and we have now been reconciled. We can actually say that God is our father and I’m his son and you’re his daughter. God is our father.

Leah Sax:
So at the beginning, you said that Jesus saves us from the power of the evil one. How does any of this do that?

Adam Curtis:
Oh good question. And I’m very aware that my last answer was a little long. So this one will be for this one will be briefer. But it doesn’t mean it’s not important, because sometimes we Christians can forget that. Actually, at Easter the evil one was defeated and Christ is seen as a victor actually, on the cross. Christ is the victor because he defeats the devil in his life. He showed he had authority over him when he beat him in the temptations in the wilderness, and in his death he defeats him. He defeats the devil by removing our debts, and this disarms the devil because then he has nothing over us anymore. Before Christ had removed our debts, the devil had this hold, you could say over us. Look what you’ve done. Look what you’ve said. Look who you are. But now, because of Christ like victory. Actually, when the devil whispers those lies at me, all I can say that is not true of me anymore, because I have been reconciled with God. I was his enemy, but now I’m his friend. Now I’ve been justified in the sight of my father. So I have nothing to fear from your lies anymore. And Colossians 2:15 just puts this very helpfully.

Leah Sax:
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. What, then, does the cross reveal to us about who God is?

Adam Curtis:
Oh so much. It literally transforms our understanding of who God is. And you know what? I’ve been a Christian for many years now, and I’m still marvelling at the God I meet in the cross and the God I know in the cross. Yeah.

Leah Sax:
Me too. Totally.

Adam Curtis:
So the cross tells us that God is glorious, like he is so glorious because he has the ability to be committed to grace and truth, to mercy and justice all at the same time. He is committed to truth and justice because the penalty for sin must be paid or he is not a just God. If he ignored the offence of sin, then actually he’d just be cruel. But actually he ensures that it is paid. But he is also full of grace and mercy, and we see that on the cross, because he is the one who pays for the penalty of sin. This is absolutely amazing. Like when we look at the cross, we can rest in the fact that God is just. We don’t worship a cruel God. He does what he wants and pleases. We worship a God who is just, and we can rest in the fact that God is love. We see that God the Father will give the one he treasures most to save us. We see God the Son is willing to sacrifice himself so that we can come home, even though we don’t deserve that.

Leah Sax:
Now I can imagine someone listening at home, or having had conversation with a friend saying, well, isn’t this proof that Jesus isn’t God? If he was unable to stop the Romans from killing him.

Adam Curtis:
Oh, and that is a good question, isn’t it? But I just don’t think it is. Sorry. I don’t want to insult that person thinking that question is good to ask our questions as we learnt from the episode on doubt. I don’t think it is because actually Jesus wasn’t surprised by any of this, that he knew this was going to happen if he went to Jerusalem and he still went to Jerusalem. Like in Mark’s Gospel, on three separate occasions, he predicts that he’s going to die. Like he knows that this is going to happen, and he walks right into it. And actually, maybe if he had just died on the cross, you could say, well, he was just a bit of an idiot rather than God. But actually the fact that his death three days later is followed by his resurrection, well, that’s the reason why this story changes the world. Then we can know with like certainty and great confidence that actually Jesus really is God because his resurrection confirms his divinity.

Leah Sax:
Tell me more how this resurrection confirms his divinity.

Adam Curtis:
Because if Jesus was just a man. Then death would contain him and that would be his end. If he was just a human being, then he might have said some wise things, but he was nothing more than that. But actually, because he has actually risen from the dead, it’s demonstrated that he is the king of life, the very source of life itself. We read in John chapter 11, verse 25-26, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? And that is, words of Jesus have weight because he was actually able to defeat death. And this is so significant. This is so significant. Jesus has a name now above every name, when we ask ourselves the question, should I be a follower of Jesus? Should I give him my life? The answer to the question is yes, because Jesus is God and His resurrection proves it. When Jesus Christ asks us to be a true disciple, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow wherever he calls us. It’s worth doing that because where he is taking us, where he is calling us, is into that eternal resurrection life with him, like Jesus now has a name which is above every name and it is worth giving your all to. This is significant because we don’t have to fear death anymore. We live in such a strange cultural sort of moment where because death terrifies us so much, we just don’t talk about it. People just don’t talk about it, and yet it confronts them. And I’m a vicar and I’ve experienced that many times. It confronts them, and sometimes it can terrify them, and sometimes it can fill them with fear, and sometimes they just try and entertain themselves out of it. But we don’t have to fear death. There are amazing words 1 Corinthians 15 where, O death is your victory? Where are you? Death is your sting like the sting is gone. The victory of death is gone because Christ has defeated it, and we can rest in that.

Leah Sax:
How should we celebrate Easter now, do you reckon, Adam, with all of this? How do we celebrate that or meditate on that.

Adam Curtis:
This might sound like a stupid thing to say, but we can celebrate Easter now by celebrating it now.

Leah Sax:
Okay, I actually see what you’re saying there, but do expound.

Adam Curtis:
Like the the church’s calendar.

Leah Sax:
You Anglican you.

Adam Curtis:
As a structure which helps us celebrate Easter like lent is helping us celebrate. Easter is the moment where Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem, and we meditate upon all that was done there and one there. And actually it’s inviting us to do the same. It’s inviting us to use daily devotions, Easter, daily devotions to meditate upon the events of Easter. It’s inviting us to maybe fast so that we actually train our bodies to think less of material things and more of eternal things. Actually, let’s celebrate Easter now by by celebrating it by listening to glorious Christian music which actually, like, fills our our hearts with awe and worship and helps us to express that awe and worship to God. What about you, Leah? How would you say we should celebrate Easter?

Leah Sax:
As a person of the Non-anglican persuasion, (even though she goes to an Anglican church), it’s interesting because all the church calendar thing, I objectively get why it’s good, but at the same time I’m like, why do we do that thing? It just seems like 40 random days at a random period of the year. But I can completely see why. Taking time to be still and to meditate on this truth in absolutely insanely busy and distracting lives is beautiful. Actually, one of my favourite services of the year at church is our Good Friday meditation.

Adam Curtis:
Yeah, I agree.

Leah Sax:
Because it’s it’s it’s a real time to sit in the grief of sin and the, the darkness of where we stand. Were it not for Jesus as someone actually who’s been a believer as long as I can remember, sometimes I don’t really see the depth of sin and see the awesomeness filled with awe of God and taking that time to be still and go. This was dark and I was reading over actually Matthew again this morning in preparation for our little recording this morning, and my heart was breaking a little bit when I was reading of how he was betrayed and handed over and crucified. I think that was especially amplified for me, as I’ve just had a weekend away with my lovely church fam. We were in revelation and we were talking about this hope and this joy and this God who is king and who is reigning. And it was just this powerful, all good, all loving, all knowing God. And to see that juxtaposition now of this man at the cross and to spend time in seeing that this is the same God and dwelling in that, I find that really helpful to do.

Adam Curtis:
Oh, Amen totally hear that, sister.

Leah Sax:
Thank you. Thank you for bearing with me and my non-anglican ways. We actually have two other voices who have been previous guests of Delight Podcast giving us some ideas. We have asked Bensly, who was our guest on episode six when we were talking about singing, to give us some Easter ideas.

Ben Slee:
Hello delight listeners, my name is Ben Slee. I’m the music pastor at Christ Church Mayfair in London, where I lead the sung worship and write worship songs and resources for local churches like yours. Adam and Leah have asked me to share three songs to help us to receive the message of Easter, and these are songs you might want to listen to or sing at home. Or maybe if you’re a musician or leader in your church, you might consider including some of these in your Sunday services over Easter. I’ve chosen three songs to take us through the journey of the Easter weekend, from the cross to the resurrection, and then through to what Easter means for us today, now. And I’ve tried to give us a mix of old and new things to sing as well as listen to. So hopefully there’ll be something familiar here for you and something that’s new as well. First off, to take us to the cross, why not sing through Man of Sorrows what a name. So this is a hymn by Philip Bliss written in 1875, and it gives a real sense of the pain and the shame of the cross. It’s a great one to sit and meditate on the depths of Jesus’s love, that he would bear our guilt and shame.

Ben Slee:
He would reclaim us from ruin and die in our place. It’s a really powerful one, so check that out. Secondly, to help us celebrate the resurrection, have a listen to Andrew Peterson’s song His Heart Beats. It’s an energetic, joyful song that pictures the very moment that Jesus came back to life and blood started flowing through his resurrected body again. It would be an amazing song to listen to Easter morning. As you wake up before you go to church, you can wake up the house for that one. I’d probably get in trouble for saying that, but finally, Lee has asked me to include one of my own songs. So here goes. I wrote a song a few years ago called where O Grave Is Your Victory? And the message of the song is that because Jesus died for our sin and has been raised to life, we have full assurance of our forgiveness and certain hope for the future, that we will be raised with him forever. So you can check that one out too. But whatever you sing this Easter? I hope and pray for all the delight family that we will be moved again by the love and the power of God at work to save us. Have a very happy Easter!

Leah Sax:
I must admit, Adam, when earlier you were reading the passage where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? I was in my head singing Ben song, *sings* where O grave is your Victory.

Adam Curtis:
It’s a winner.

Leah Sax:
I was singing that song in my head, so I can recommend that song. We also have another voice with us, giving us some wisdom because it turns out, Adam, we don’t have all the wisdom.

Adam Curtis:
What? We ask the news to me.

Leah Sax:
What even voice is that? We asked Lucy Rycroft, who was our amazing guest on episode 15 of Delight Podcast. She’s from the Hope Filled Family and gave us this amazing picture of parenting for the gospel. So she’s got some ideas for us to redeem Easter with our families this year.

Lucy Rycroft:
Hello delight listeners, it’s Lucy here from the Hope Filled family and a fellow delight fan. Adam and Leah, you do an amazing job. Thank you so much for this podcast. It is a total gift to Christians of all ages and stages, I think. Anyway, here are three ways to redeem Easter with kids and teens. I feel like I’m delivering Eurovision scores or something. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, here we go. Number one, resist the urge to do everything, including at church. Your church is probably doing a gazillion events and services this year. You don’t have to do the Passover meal. The Good Friday all age event, three hours at the cross, the sunrise service. Whatever your church is putting on it is okay not to go to everything. It’s okay to miss stuff. So consider your children’s ages and also where they’re at in terms of their relationship with Jesus right now. And just pick one thing that you think will engage them. Number two, as well as not doing everything, remember, you don’t need to cover everything about the Easter story as well. Like you don’t need to be explaining substitutionary atonement to your three year old, okay? They will have other Easters where their understanding will be a little bit more, and you’ll be able to go that little bit deeper with them. So don’t worry about what they aren’t understanding, just focus on what they can understand. You know, the cross is super complicated when we get into it, but it’s also super simple, like a three year old can understand it, which is just the beauty of it.

Lucy Rycroft:
And if you are looking for a way to talk easily to your young kids about Easter in particular, then I recommend something called Resurrection Eggs. You can find a free tutorial on my website, theHopefilledFamily.com. They are just a really lovely, interactive, simple way of sharing the Easter story with your little kids. And my kids all absolutely adore them when they were younger. And finally, number three, I do find it really helpful to have some age appropriate resources just to engage my kids and if I’m honest, just to help explain things when I’m tired and my brain’s not working, I just find it really useful to have a book or two at the ready, with wording that has been kind of carefully thought out in advance by somebody else, rather than me, sort of stuttering and stumbling over some tricky theological question that my kids have just asked. And so if again, if you go to my website, theHopefilledFamily.com, if you search Easter, you’ll get loads of recommendations of Easter story books for all ages, as well as lent devotions and creative activities as well. And I also have two brand new lent devotionals available, one for 8 to 11, one. One is for 11 to 15, and you can find all the details of those on my Instagram and Facebook. That’s it! Have a fabulous Easter everyone and enjoy sharing the greatest story ever!

Leah Sax:
Oh my goodness, I love Lucy! She’s just so enthusiastic and that brings me joy.

Adam Curtis:
Oh Amen.

Leah Sax:
If you’re enjoying Delight Podcast, why not consider rating or reviewing us on your listening app of choice? It really does make a massive difference. And if you’re particularly enjoying today’s episode, why not share it on socials? You can also find us at Delight Podcast on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Thank you for being a part of the Delight Podcast family.

Leah Sax:
Now, normally this is a bit where we meditate on the truth we just heard from our guest, but I feel I’d be giving you feedback on your talk. Adam, which.

Adam Curtis:
Should I meditate on? My own talk?

Leah Sax:
No, I want to meditate on your talk. I really, because I was listening and I took notes because I’m responsible. I really like that journey from the temple to the market to the law courts, to the home and all that. Jesus death achieved. I must admit, I’ve never seen it in that language, and it really helped me kind of understand this is what I learned, vicar. Um, all that Jesus death did achieve. And I’ve never seen that that pictorial language in quite that way before. So thank you, brother.

Adam Curtis:
Yes, I hear that now.

Leah Sax:
Adam, it turns out this podcast rather unexpectedly involved you basically doing an immense amount of prep and me popping along and doing some recording.

Adam Curtis:
And not agree on just to say, in fact, at the beginning of this podcast, you were going to be answering some of the questions, and somehow I did them all.

Leah Sax:
As you were prepping this. What was God teaching you about your heart?

Adam Curtis:
You know, there were actually two things which just struck me afresh. One which struck me many, many years ago when I was really struggling with faith, and the thing which the Lord really brought me back to himself was the fact that we can have confidence in the resurrection happened. And so that’s when I was doing a bit of research using an amazing website called Be Thinking. It grounded me again that the resurrection happened like it is the best explanation we have for a miraculous event, and that is just oh so reassuring, but also just what the cross is like achieved for us and won for us. All that language of the temple and the marketplace and the law courts and the home. Maybe it’s where I am in this moment right now, but just the language of the home that we’ve been reconciled, that we were a rebellious son who just wanted to live at his own way and can now actually be called the child of God and be welcomed in. I was like, oh, I’m in. I get to go to my father in heaven and and pray to him. I get to rest in all that his son has done for me. I get to be filled with His Holy Spirit. I get to be an heir of eternity. Like, ah, I just love that.

Leah Sax:
Now, Adam, I’m going to say that you are our guest this week because it just feels appropriate for all the graph that you put in. I’m going to ask you our season six bonus question, which is what are you currently most thankful for?

Adam Curtis:
Okay, I’m ready, I’m ready, ready, ready. I’ve actually got a properly I’m going to go get it.

Leah Sax:
Oh dear.

Adam Curtis:
Leah. Yes I am most thankful for this.

Leah Sax:
Tell the listener what they can. Oh! Oh, Adam. Adam. Adam! Adam!

Adam Curtis:
What? What’s happened? You’ve got one, two. Come on. That is absolutely amazing. I am now thankful that both of us have got one of these. That is next level.

Leah Sax:
They’re gonks. They’re gonks. I will share a photo of the Gonks.

Adam Curtis:
I went to the gym the other day. Occasionally it does happen. When I got out of the gym, I found this gunk, which I’d never even heard of a gunk on my bike. And it’s basically this, this small little toy, bearded toy, and it says Adam on it and it says, imagine it’s something you’d like, hang on a Christmas tree or something like that anyway. And I was like, who is, who is this mystery gift Gonk from? And it brought me a lot of joy working out. Who gave me the gonk?

Leah Sax:
Who gave you the gonk?

Adam Curtis:
It was a young family from church. They’d seen me park up my bike. Apparently one of the little boys in the shop was going through the big pile of gonks, and he found one which said Adam, and he was very excited about it. So they decided to buy it for me and leave it on my bike. Where did you get yours from Leah?

Leah Sax:
So for my 40th birthday last year. What? You’re 40? No way. I know, I know, my niece and nephew.

Adam Curtis:
This is actually is no way. Like, for anyone who knows Leah, it’s like she honestly looks like she’s 25.

Leah Sax:
Baby you can stay.

Leah Sax:
Is that my niece and nephew, who are four and six, they think that they call me Yaya cos they couldn’t say Leah. They think that Yaya just likes things that are colourful and sparkly. So got me 40 gifts that were all colourful and sparkly. One of them included just a bag of sequins, and one of them was the gonk, which I adore.

Adam Curtis:
Come on, that is so cute that both of us have one.

Leah Sax:
Thank you so much to Adam Curtis for kind of being our guest on episode 29 of Delight Podcast. Adam, what’s coming next week?

Adam Curtis:
I just want to say thank you so much for having me on this podcast.

Leah Sax:
You are a very well prepared guest and you behaved yourself very appropriately.

Adam Curtis:
And maybe I shouldn’t have done, because next week we’ve got an outtakes episode, which is basically a whole episode where Leah, the editor, gets to mock me.

Leah Sax:
Because I love you, brother. We’ll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. This is Adam and Leah delightfully signing off. Bye bye.

Adam Curtis:
Bye.

Leah Sax:
Smashed it. I cannot get over the gonk-age.