Feast of Firstfruits.  By JW 17

During the Feast of Unleavened Bread there is always a Sabbath (Saturday). The day after the Sabbath we are told to bring the “first fruits” of the harvest (the first ripe barley in the field) and raise it as a wave offering; this is the Feast (or Day) of First Fruits.

Today, there is neither Temple nor earthly priesthood, but we can observe the spirit of the First Fruits offering. It was given from the first harvest of the year — not knowing if any more crops would spring from the ground. It was, and still represents, a “faith” offering; a declaration that you trust the Almighty to provide for you throughout the coming year.

 Yes! The year Jesus was crucified, the Passover sacrifice (and the sacrifice of our Savior) occurred on a Wednesday. As the Bible states in Matthew 12:40, he was in the ground for three days and three nights (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights; Thursday, Friday and Saturday days).

That leads us right to the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of the “morrow after the Sabbath,” the day of First Fruits! Jesus, our Messiah, was raised on the Sabbath and then, as the day of First Fruits began, he raised some of the First Fruits saints whose graves were opened at his crucifixion.  He only then was presented to the Heavenly Temple to God; this was the fulfillment of the Feast of First Fruits.  This may well have been done in the early afternoon on that Sunday.  After that assention day he was later back with his disciples that night.

There is no Temple and no priest serving in the Temple now to which we can bring our first fruits, but we can remember this command in other ways. We remember that Jesus is the son of God, We acknowledge that the first of the fruitfruits died and was offered to the Father as the actual and symbolic waive sheaf.  As he set the example of love for all of mankind and gave us the two great commandments, we can after making and observing that Jesus, the firstfruits declaration, we then can do something ourselves for to care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the Levite (Deuteronomy 26:12).  We can always take a project for loving our neighbors and figure out something to do for them.  There is no indication of presenting money.  Sometimes just presenting money is just a way out of actually doing something for someone else.  Sometimes just throwing money is easier than dedicating our time.

When you celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the First Fruits, remember that, as 1 Corinthians 15:20 says, “Now is Messiah risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” He was the first born from among the dead (Revelation 1:5) and with the keys of death and the grave (Revelation 1:18).

Again stated:
 Somewhere around AD 31, the firstfruits of an even greater harvest issued forth, for it was on the first day after the Sabbath that occurred in the midst of the Passover celebration that Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:1–10). Lest there be any doubt that His resurrection fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits, Paul tells us explicitly that Christ is the firstfruits of those who will be raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20–23). Just as the firstfruits offered to God under the old covenant anticipated the fuller harvest to come, the resurrection of Jesus anticipates the bodily resurrection of His people first promised under the old covenant (Job 19:25–27).

Fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits was the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost (from the Greek term pentekostos, or fiftieth), which was the grand celebration at the end of the grain harvest. On this occasion, the offerings of food and animals to the Lord were more lavish (Lev. 23:15–22), an appropriate way to thank Him for the tremendous bounty He had provided.

Paul says Jesus was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25), and so we often celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection as proof that our sins have been fully atoned for and that we are now declared righteous in God’s sight. This is entirely appropriate, but we should also remember that our Lord’s resurrection is proof positive that we who trust in Him will be raised (presented as ascending) in like manner, at the last day, and dwell with Him bodily in a new heaven and earth.

Additional thoughts:
God did not stop there though. He created a specific day, "First Fruits", to commemorate that the first of everything belonged to Him.

In the originality of First Fruits, God stipulated that on the first day of the week after Passover's Shabbat (Sabbath), they were to bring in a portion of their first harvest as an offering to the Lord. They were to bring in this grain before they even ate any portion of the newly harvested grain.  By the end of the year, when they had dwindled down last year’s harvest to almost nothing, it would have been easy for them to take the new grain and enjoy it themselves. Yet God told them "No, the first harvested grains must be dedicated to Me". This is not just about "giving to God", it is about putting Him first in our lives and remembering that He gave us everything that we have.

Barley is the first grain to ripen in the region of Israel. Barley is almost drought resistant and is known as the poor-man's-bread flour. Thus Barley is the first fruit to be brought before God. A sheaf of this grain is then waved in the Lord's presence and a male, unblemished lamb is sacrificed. They would give this gift to the Lord every year on this day,  just as they consecrated (dedicated) all of the rest of their firstborn children when they were born. God has set apart firstborn sons. Jesus was God's firstborn Son. Jesus was also Mary's firstborn son.

Jesus was also our very first "First Fruit" from the dead. He wasn't the first to be raised from the dead physically, for He Himself raised Lazarus from the dead. No, Jesus was the first one raised from the dead to be presented before God in heaven.

Only perfection can enter God's presence. Jesus rose to heaven after His resurrection and went before God's throne, presenting Himself as the official fulfillment of the Feast of First Fruits. Jesus went before God also as the perfect sacrifice to open the way for those who believe in Him to enter God's throne room.

Jesus was the unblemished lamb and the "poor-man's-bread flour" at the same time. His perfection, mixed with Him being the first of the dead to bow before God's throne, made Him exactly what God had intended for Him to be - the completion of First Fruits.  He becomes our flawlessness if we call on Him. He takes away our blemishes and makes us clean so that now God's Spirit may enter our bodies. Now we may become God's Temple. The sacrifices that were once made in the physical Temple in Jerusalem are now placed before God inside each of us. We are now at the juncture in the story where God initially intended us to be, in a personal relationship with Him. We can have that intimacy with Him that refines us into what He created us to be.

God modeled the earthly Temple after the heavenly one and now that Temple is inside of us. Jesus is our High Priest and He helps us place our sins on the "alter", "covered by His blood" and then "burns it as an offering" pleasing to God. When we reach the Feast of First Fruits, we are reminded that Jesus entered the Heavenly Temple as the First Fruits of the Dead to make all of this happen.  So this is a Feast Day.