Leviticus 23:9-14 Feast of First Fruits

We’re in unusual times and it’s often in times like this that fear is able to find way to worm its way into our hearts and minds. You are likely hearing or seeing this message on the computer rather than gathering with friends and family in church because of the COVID 19 health scare, and yet it’s in times like this especially that Jesus calls to trust in him and not worry or live in fear.

Israel is sitting at the foot of Mount Sinai; hearing God shape their lives as his people so they will be a blessing to the nations. These feasts are how God reminds them of who he is and who they are. The Feast of First Fruits is a harvest festival that calls on God’s people to trust him. They’ve seen God’s power in Egypt, felt his deliverance from their slave masters, and now God’s calling them to trust him and remember to be thankful for what they’re being given.

God is saying: “I’m bringing you into a really fertile land. I want you to acknowledge this. Each spring, when the first harvest is available, bring some to the temple and the priest will acknowledge your offering before me. Do this on the Sunday during the week of Unleavened Bread.” The priests take the offerings from the people and sprinkle incense on it, wave it before the Lord to show it comes from the Lord and is now being given back as a show of trust and gratitude. Part of the offering is thrown into the fire on the alter, which is why the incense is mixed in it to make it a sweet offering to God. The rest is used to feed the priests and their families. Paul reminds the people in his letter to the church in Rome, “If the part of the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” By bringing the first part of the harvest and giving it the Lord, the rest of the harvest is sacred. God then gives the rest of the harvest to the people for their families.

This takes trust and faith. It’s easy to be thankful to God for what he’s already given you; it takes faith to give him the first part of your harvest without knowing for sure how the rest of the harvest is going to go and thanking God for what he is going to give you before you actually get it. The First Fruits Festival is all about expressing your faith in God and his power, love and generosity; praising him before getting anything in return. It’s telling God, “We trust you that you will provide for us and send the rain and sun as needed so our crops can grow and be harvested and our people will be able to eat.” There’s no promise here that there won’t be hail storms, bug infestations, or crop failure; it’s all about being generous to God first, trusting that he will provide.

Jesus comes to save us because we are sinners. Jesus is slaughtered as the sacrificial lamb on Passover, buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread and raised from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. Because of Adam’s sin we all face death, but through Jesus, we’re made alive. Jesus is the sign of this, the first fruit, a promise that we too will be raised from death and the grave because we are washed clean from our sin, made pure and right again with God through Jesus.

First Fruits is about giving back to God in advance of what he’s going to give us; a gift of trust and faith from the gifts he has already given us. To help us see God’s gifts to us, one rabbi asked, “Who coloured the flowers, who has painted the sunrises and sunsets.” I enjoy watching the sun-rise in the morning as I walk Bellah through our neighbourhood, it’s a beautiful reminder every morning of our creator and father who’s also an artist and shares his art with us every day. Who made forests, the mountains and plains in such a way that we are able to live off the land through hunting, fishing, and harvesting? These are all gifts given to us before we offer anything to God. There are the gifts of family, friendships, love and more that shape our lives and give meaning and depth to our lives. God is generous to us and he makes it so that Israel enters the Promised Land at harvest time, able to eat of the fruit of the land without having to do the work of planting and caring for the fields as a sign that he will provide generously for his people. We trust that God will provide.

Do you really believe that you can trust God to provide for you, to give you what you need? Do you trust him enough to bring your offerings with thankfulness and gratitude and without worrying about what lies ahead if you do give him from your first fruits instead of your left overs? This is where faith kicks in, or doesn’t. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 6, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? …. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

These festivals call for action from the people. There are physical and spiritual responses called for by God. You have to work to harvest the first fruits and then physically bring them to the Lord. The offering is then physically presented to the Lord in a wave offering. This calls for trust in God to provide, but it’s also done with a spirit of excitement and anticipation of God providing. It can be scary at times, but there’s also freedom in trusting God. We see Jesus actively moving towards the cross, choosing to go to Jerusalem. He doesn’t fight against his sentence, he physically suffers and dies, and is physically risen from the grave. Our faith is an active faith and we see this in our youth and young adults.

For many of our youth, faith is about changing the world, about making a difference right here where we can see it. They’re willing to sacrifice in order to make things happen, trusting that this is what God wants and expects from us; faith in action. These feasts remind us that faith is an active thing. James reminds us, faith without works is dead. Jesus calls us to a life of renewal and hope; to live life with a spirit of gratitude, trust and generosity. Trust can be hard when the stock market crashes, when the price of oil which drives our economy nose dives because other nations are in a price war, or when a health scare arises. Trust can be hard when there’s more month than money, or if you can’t see a reason for hope. This is why the Feasts point us to Jesus and away from ourselves; to trust in the one who can save us, protect us and provide for us.

Paul points to Jesus as the first fruit of those who have died. In Jesus’ resurrection, all those who believe in him will be resurrected with him. 1 Corinthians 15, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” John echoes this in Revelation 1, “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

If Jesus is the First Fruit, then that means there is a second, third, and more fruit. Jesus celebrates First Fruits by giving his Father a first fruit offering. In Matthew 27, Matthew tells us that at the death of Jesus, graves opened up and people rose from the dead and walked through the town where everyone could see them. Jesus brought to his Father an early “crop” pointing ahead to the magnificent harvest that’s happening right now in every person who accepts Jesus as Lord.

First Fruits is about trust and grateful, faith motivated giving. The harvest for most of us is not about barley or grain, but about people coming to know Jesus. This week, reach out to one person you have been praying for to come to know Jesus. reach out through a phone call, an email, a text as there will be many lonely people afraid to go out. Trust that in reaching out, the Holy Spirit is working. At a time such as this, reaching out in love may be the best way to help us all stay healthy emotionally and spiritually. Trust that the Lord will work through you and in you, that he will provide for you and keep you safe in these unsettled times.