What is the Feast of Firstfruits?

When we talk about the Feast of Firstfruits, this is early firstfruits.  It took place around the time of Passover/unleavened bread, and coincided with the barley harvest.  (Latter Firstfruits is also celebrated, at the time of the wheat harvest, but tends to be called the Feast of Weeks.)

How to Celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits According to the Old Testament

As with the other feasts of the Lord, Firstfruits is summarized in Leviticus 23 (vv. 9-14):

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

There are a few things to note about this.  There was a burnt offering made on this day, together with grain & drink offerings.  (This trio of offerings essentially formed a whole meal — meat and bread and wine!)

A key point here, though, is that the firstfruits themselves were offered as a sheaf of grain.  (This is noteworthy, because the latter firstfruits offering is different.)

The timing provided is a little vague.  The offering was to be brought “on the day after the Sabbath.” It’s possible this refers simply to whatever Sabbath happened to fall closest to the harvest, but contextually, it seems to refer to the Sabbath within the week of Unleavened Bread.

Other passages that refer to the various feasts — such as Exodus 23 and 24 — seem to lump early Firstfruits in with Passover & Unleavened Bread, almost as though they’re all a single entity.  This trio (Passover, Unleavened Bread, & Firstfruits) was, together with the Feast of Weeks (latter firstfruits) and Feast of Ingathering (Sukkot), one of the three major feasts the men were to gather in Jerusalem for.

Traditional Disagreement Over Dates

Traditionally, the exact date of Firstfruits has been a point of contention.  There was widespread agreement that this feast’s date finds its reference in the Passover/Unleavened Bread.  However, there was disagreement between certain groups of religious leaders — such as the Pharisees and the Sadducees — regarding whether the “Sabbath” here is the regular weekly Sabbath or the “high Sabbath” of Passover itself.

This discrepancy persists in some circles today.

Because of the way the weeks between Early and Latter Firstfruits are to be counted, I believe the intent is for (early) Firstfruits to occur on the day after whatever regular weekly Sabbath falls during the week of Unleavened Bread.  So it is always a Sunday.

The Feast of Firstfruits – Meaning in Scripture

If we look at the historical timing of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see that He died at Passover along with the Passover lambs…and He was raised again on Firstfruits.  (“Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb…” -Mk. 16:2)

Paul, in 1 Corinthians, delves into this association, describing Christ as the firstfruits:

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.  (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, emphasis added)

(I encourage you to read the the whole chapter.  It’s interesting how Paul focuses on the concept of grain here.  In fact, this entire trio of feasts — Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits — seems to have been at the forefront of his mind as he wrote 1 Corinthians.)

The message here is pretty straightforward: Jesus, in overcoming death, became the firstfruits of those who would be raised from the dead.  The rest of the harvest is to come later.

Celebrating the Feast of Firstfruits as Christians

What we celebrate in Firstfruits has been made clear — we celebrate that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection, and because He is the firstfruits, we can be part of the overall harvest.

I especially love this summary, found on the Lehigh University website:

“This week, we are actually celebrating, not one, not two, but three distinct holidays:
Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Day of First Fruits.
These three festivals speak of three stages of salvation: justification, sanctification and glorification.”

How to celebrate is a whole other question.

We’re not making burnt offerings.  Most of us aren’t trekking to Jerusalem.  And because we are, for the most part, no longer an agricultural society, even the idea of the firstfruits of the harvest is a little bit foreign to most of us.

As far as I’m aware, Jews today don’t really celebrate this, due to the absence of the temple.  (This is really interesting, given the Messianic significance of this feast!)  It’s even skipped over, or nearly so, in some of my Christian books on the biblical holidays!  The only meaningful role it plays (conventionally) is as a marker for the start of the Counting of the Omer — the countdown of the weeks between Early and Latter Firstfruits.

So how can we celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits today?

• Celebrate the Resurrection.  What most of the world calls “Easter” is, in fact, Firstfruits.
• Testify of Jesus.  The sheaves of grain that comprised the firstfruits were “waved.”  It’s a bit of a cheesy way of putting it, but do we not “wave” Jesus, spiritually speaking, when we proclaim Him before men?Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”  (John 12:32)  He likely was referring to being lifted up on the cross, but it’s also the case that when we lift Him up in our lives and words, that’s a means He uses to draw people to Himself.  (“[H]ow shall they hear without a preacher?”)
• Offer up our firstfruits.  You might be a farmer.  Most of my readers are not.  Chances are, you don’t have a barley harvest — or, really, a harvest of any kind of grain.  And whatever you do have may or may not ripen at the time of Unleavened Bread.  But you can uphold the spirit of the feast by offering your firstfruits back to God.  If you grow something, maybe the first of your harvest is given away.  “Tithing” off the top of your income is a kind of giving back firstfruits.The people were not to eat any bread or grain from the harvest until they’d offered the firstfruits to God.  We can honor God as the provider of our increase by also looking to Him first before partaking of our material blessings ourselves.
• Eat grain.  In particular, if you have access to barley, this might be a good time to try that.  Because of our disconnect from our food sources, the idea of grain and of firstfruits can be a bit foreign to us — and to our kids.  Intentionally bringing whole grain into our celebration can help our children, in particular, to gain a more concrete understanding of what was happening at Firstfruits in Bible times.If you don’t have a mill or anything like that, you might try a barley soup.  If you do have a mill, consider a barley flatbread (it’s still Unleavened Bread week, remember?).  (Barley contains gluten, so if you’re gluten-sensitive, you’ll need an alternative.)If you’re really ambitious, you might consider planting a small stand of barley just for teaching purposes!
• Begin counting.  Early Firstfruits marks the start of the “counting of the omer.”  While “omer” technically refers to a measure or sheaf of grain, contextually we’re talking about the counting of the days/weeks from here to Latter Firstfruits/the Feast of Weeks.

Your Turn

What is Firstfruits to you?  What do you have firstfruits of?  Do you think of Firstfruits as an annual celebration or a weekly one (every Sunday)?