Feast of First Fruits
The church continues to celebrate First Fruits in its New Testament essence, as Resurrection Sunday, but most fail to realize its full impact or its glorious promise for the future, unless it is understood from its original command given by God.
The church appreciates Passover in that the Lord Jesus cited this feast Himself as a holy convocation. The church uses the Passover wine and bread as symbols used in its communion remembrance of Jesus' last Passover meal on earth. Jesus says, "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19). Similar to Israel's deliverance from Egypt in the Book of Exodus, Christians are encouraged to remember their deliverance from bondage by the blood of the Lamb.
However, with the Feast of First Fruits, Christians have confused an ancient pagan fertility rite with the original directions given by God. Today, we have a mixture of a Babylonian festival with a Biblical holy day.
Resurrection Sunday
We should look carefully at the original instructions for the Feast of First Fruits to fully understand their implications:
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap the harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it'" (Leviticus 23:10-11).
To paraphrase, God is saying to Moses, "I am taking My people into a fruitful land. I would like them to acknowledge the land's rich abundance. Each spring, when the first harvest of the year is available, the people should bring some of their first pickings of their crops to the Temple so that the high priest can acknowledge My generosity. This must be done on the Sunday ("the morrow after the sabbath") during the week of Unleavened Bread.
God honors Resurrection Sunday, the Sunday after Passover, as representing the things which come out of the ground spontaneously and miraculously after a long, dead winter. We see this miracle every spring, and we usually take it for granted. What do we have to do to our crops, and trees to make them come forth with their first fruits? The answer is nothing. God miraculously causes the growth and rejuvenation of these plants. We simply watch and wait. They are free gifts from God, as is our coming resurrection.
Easter and its pagan roots
Where Easter is concerned, we have confused a pagan ritual with the Feast of First Fruits. Each spring, the Babylonians saw the first fruits and assumed it would the perfect time to ask their goddess, Ishtar (Easter), for new babies. They worshiped the things in nature which represented fertility such as the egg and rabbits. The people, in celebration of the new buds on the trees and shrubbery, wore new costumes. Today, most Christians continue the Babylonian rite by celebrating first fruits with the Easter Bunny, painting eggs bright colors (commemorating the new flowers and spring growth of the plants), and wearing new outfits to church and other gatherings during Easter. Of course, no Easter celebration would be complete without an egg hunt, which represents the ancient pagan ritual of attempting to conceive a baby.
First Fruits: Its true meaning and future implications
The original Feast of First Fruits, however, contains a great truth. If there are first fruits, then there must be a second, a third and so on. That is the true meaning of this Sunday. We do not merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, but the resurrection of the entire church. The Lord rising from the dead is cause for great wonder and blessing, but are we really surprised? He could feed thousands, walk on water and could raise the dead. The greater miracle is that we ordinary, mortal sinners will all rise!
As Paul states in his first letter to the Corinthians: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).
Those "in Adam" die, since all descendants of our sinning original father have inherited his terrible trait. But in Christ, we are made alive again.
Jesus celebrated First Fruits in the appropriate manner by rising from the dead on that day. He also gave the Father His First Fruit offering. Graves were opened and the dead rose and were seen after Jesus' resurrection (Matthew 27:53). Our Lord, not unlike any farmer of the soil, gratefully brought before the Father a few early "crops" of what would be a magnificent harvest later on. We sometimes fail to note that Jesus was not the only deceased person to rise on that miraculous day of First Fruits. Those He brought forth from their graves represent a type of church. Christians shall be brought forth from their graves for the big fall harvest--the Rapture--at the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah). It was not only the Lord's resurrection that demonstrates the promise to Christians, but also the resurrection of those chosen saints of the time, which assures Christians of their own resurrection.
The Future
First Fruits, in essence, means that Jesus as Lord and Savior will return for His people. Buddha and Mohammed have not promised their followers that they will return for them. With these worldly religious, what you see is what you get. But the King is coming! First Fruits represents the whole point of Christianity--what you see is not all that you get. This life is only the beginning. Even if a Christian dies, he shall rise...just as those dead branches of winter bear fruit every spring.
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