The Feast of First Fruits is connected with Passover. God connected this third festival time with Passover from the beginning. Leviticus 23: 11 On the day after the Sabbath, (following the Passover) the priest will lift it up before the Lord so it may be accepted on your behalf.[1] It was God’s timing that directed the celebration of this festival.
First-Fruits of the Barley Harvest
The timing of this festival would coincide with the barley harvest. The High Priest presented the wave offering so that the rest of the harvest would be accepted. It had been the blood of the lamb which allowed the Israelites to be safe during the plague of the firstborn. Then the people had to be ready to leave the land of their slavery at a minute’s notice. Thus, they didn’t wait for their bread to rise, but simply baked unleavened bread. Now that they had entered the promised land, there was a new life freed from the slavery and oppression of Egypt. The Feast of the First Fruits could not have happened without the original Passover.
The Resurrection of Christ Must be Connected to His Death
Jesus was raised bodily from the dead on the day after the Sabbath after the Passover. Jesus died as the Passover lamb which took away the sins of the world. He removed the “leaven” of sin on the First Day of Unleavened Bread which was also a Sabbath the year Jesus died on the cross. Just as the priests were waving the sheaf of the First Fruits in the Temple, Jesus was raised up and made alive.
Years later the Apostle Paul would explain this to the Corinthian church. 1 Corinthians 15: 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said…20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.[2]
Just as the Israelites had a struggle through the wilderness to come to promise land to celebrate the Feast of First Fruits, we experience a wilderness journey in this earthy life. It is only then that we will be able to experience the resurrection life without sin. The Passover Lamb had to be killed before it could be revived. The resurrection of Jesus always needs to relate to His death and suffering on the Cross.
Romans 8: 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children including the new bodies he has promised us. [3]
To hear how first fruits is connected with Passover, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/foreshadowing-of-the-cross-first-fruits
[1-3] Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.