Jesus’ Resurrection on the Morning of First Fruits

On Passover Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death. It is a new beginning for humanity. Through His death and resurrection, His followers may also be brought back to life. We follow Him in death, so that we may live with Him. But in essence, this also means: I no longer live, but He lives in Me.

Again, it wasn’t just any ordinary Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the grave. It was the morning of the Feast of the First Fruits. This is the third feast on God’s Calendar. On this morning the first fruits of the first harvest of the season were brought into the temple, this first-fruit was a sheaf of barley. This sheaf of barley was brought before God as a wave offering. The Bible describes that Jesus was the first-fruit of those who had died, which indicates that we can expect a harvest. On the morning of His resurrection, He was brought before God in the Heavenly Temple, just as the earthly high priest waved the barley in the temple in Jerusalem. That was why Maria was not allowed to touch Him when she met Him the morning of His resurrection, as Jesus told her: First He had to go to His Father (that morning). A week later Thomas was allowed to touch Him.

By giving the first fruits of the harvest back to God, the whole harvest was sanctified. Jesus was the First-Fruit of a gigantic harvest, and through Him believers in Jesus Christ are also sanctified for the great Day which is to come at the end of the harvest.