The Feast of Firstfruits – The Harvest’s Guarantee
The priest waved a sheaf of grain before the LORD on the day after the Sabbath during Passover week. This seemingly simple agricultural ritual carried profound meaning: the firstfruits represented the entire harvest to come. By offering the first portion to God, Israel acknowledged that all the harvest belonged to Him and trusted that abundant gathering would follow. This feast, observed for centuries without full understanding, found its astonishing fulfillment when Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the very day of Firstfruits—the guarantee of resurrection for all who belong to Him.
The Common Reading
Leviticus 23:9-14 prescribes the Feast of Firstfruits, timed to occur “on the morrow after the sabbath” during the week of Unleavened Bread that followed Passover. When Israel entered the Promised Land and reaped its harvest, they were to bring a sheaf of the first grain to the priest, who would “wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you” (Leviticus 23:11).
The offering included the grain sheaf, a burnt offering of a male lamb, a grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and a drink offering of wine. Until this offering was made, Israel was forbidden to eat from the new harvest—”neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God” (Leviticus 23:14).
The timing mattered precisely. Firstfruits occurred during Passover week, specifically on the day after the weekly Sabbath (Saturday), meaning it always fell on a Sunday. This created a sequence: Passover lamb slain, Unleavened Bread beginning, then Firstfruits on the first day of the week.
Traditional interpretation understands this feast as Israel’s grateful acknowledgment of God’s provision. The firstfruits belonged to God as Creator and Sustainer. By giving the first portion, worshipers demonstrated trust that the rest would follow. The wave offering lifted the sheaf toward heaven, symbolically presenting the harvest to God before claiming any for themselves.
The Limitation of This Reading
Yet viewing Firstfruits merely as agricultural thanksgiving leaves its precise timing unexplained. Why during Passover week specifically? Why the day after the Sabbath rather than a fixed calendar date? And why does this feast, unlike others, seem to require fulfillment in order to be understood?
The relationship between Firstfruits and the larger harvest creates a principle that transcends agriculture. The firstfruits sample was the same kind as what would follow. If the firstfruits were wheat, the harvest was wheat. If the firstfruits were barley, the harvest was barley. The quality and nature of the firstfruits guaranteed the quality and nature of the full harvest. This correspondence between first and following demands explanation.
Moreover, something about the firstfruits was accepted “for you”—the worshipers. The sheaf was waved before the LORD and accepted on behalf of the people. How can grain be accepted for people? What transaction was taking place in this ritual that exceeded mere gratitude?
Christ-Centered Unveiling
Paul provides the key that unlocks Firstfruits: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). In one phrase, the apostle identifies Christ’s resurrection as the fulfillment of this ancient feast. Jesus is the firstfruits; believers who die in Him are the harvest.
The timing is extraordinary. Jesus died on Passover as the Lamb of God, remained in the tomb during the days of Unleavened Bread, and rose on the Feast of Firstfruits—the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week. The annual ritual that Israel had observed for centuries awaited this particular Sunday morning when the true Firstfruits would be waved before the Father and accepted.
Paul continues: “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). The resurrection sequence follows the agricultural pattern: first the initial sheaf (Christ), then the full harvest (believers at His return). The firstfruits guarantee the harvest.
The nature of Christ’s resurrection body reveals the nature of believers’ resurrection bodies. “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44). If the firstfruits are wheat, the harvest is wheat. If Christ rose in a glorified, imperishable body, so shall those who belong to Him. We shall be like Him because He is the firstfruits of what we shall become.
The Fulfillment in Christ
Christ fulfills the Feast of Firstfruits with precision that confirms divine orchestration. The sheaf was waved before the LORD on the first day of the week—Christ rose on Sunday. The sheaf was the beginning of the harvest—Christ is “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). The sheaf was accepted for the worshipers—Christ’s resurrection secures our resurrection.
The prohibition against eating the harvest until firstfruits were offered finds spiritual application: resurrection life is available only through Christ’s resurrection first. “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). His resurrection precedes and enables ours. We have no claim on resurrection apart from our connection to the Firstfruits.
Matthew records that when Jesus rose, “the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matthew 27:52-53). These resurrections during Christ’s firstfruits rising were like additional stalks in the initial sheaf—evidence that the harvest had begun, that death’s grip was broken.
The burnt offering, grain offering, and drink offering that accompanied Firstfruits all point to Christ. He is the unblemished lamb completely consumed in devotion to the Father. He is the crushed grain that becomes bread of life. He is the poured-out wine of the new covenant. The entire offering package prefigured His person and work.
The wave offering’s motion—lifting toward heaven—pictures Christ’s ascension. Forty days after resurrection (and thus after the original Firstfruits day), Jesus ascended to the Father, presented as the accepted offering on our behalf. “He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). The Firstfruits has been accepted; the harvest is secured.
The Gospel Mystery Revealed
The Feast of Firstfruits proclaims the guarantee of resurrection. When farmers saw the priest wave that first sheaf, they knew the harvest was coming. When believers see Christ risen, they know their own resurrection is coming. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). The Firstfruits has risen; the harvest will follow.
This feast transforms how we view death. Without resurrection, death is final, and life ends in decay. With resurrection guaranteed by the risen Firstfruits, death becomes temporary—a sleep from which we will awaken. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed… and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). The harvest is certain because the Firstfruits is alive.
Are you connected to the Firstfruits? The harvest shares the nature of the first sheaf—if separated from Christ, there is no resurrection to life. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). Resurrection is not universal guarantee but specific promise to those united to the Firstfruits by faith.
Every Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate what the Feast of Firstfruits always anticipated—the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first day of the week. The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. The Firstfruits emerged. And with His emergence came the guarantee that death is defeated, that graves will open, that bodies will rise, that mortality will put on immortality.
The ancient Israelite priest waved his sheaf toward heaven, not knowing that centuries later, on that very feast day, the true Firstfruits would rise and ascend to be accepted by the Father. Now we know. Christ is risen. The harvest is coming. Every believer who dies in Christ sleeps in the confidence that the Firstfruits guarantees their awakening. “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).