Remembering Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is always so special. Even though we celebrate it every year, it never loses its incredible message, its meaning, and its glory. There is so much depth to the “old, old story”.
The best part of all? God loves you and me. We have been bought with a price, Christ’s own blood. We are forgiven. Our heavenly Bridegroom is preparing a place for us right now, and He’s coming back very soon.
The resurrection of Christ ties directly into the promise of His return. How so?
That promise is found in the Hebrew word for “first fruits”. That word is Bikkurim which can also mean: “The promise to come”.
1 Corinthians 15:20 says: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”
Jesus was “the bikkurim of them that slept” - promising, guaranteeing, a harvest of souls to rise from the dead someday at His return!
First fruits is something the Bible mentions many times, but in my observation, this is not talked about among Christians. I can understand why.
In the Old Testament, first fruits was tied to the agriculture cycle and to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple has been gone for centuries. It doesn’t exist anymore.
While the agricultural cycle is still very much in existence today (hello spring! hello planting season!) most Christians don’t think about how that cycle tied directly into the Bible.
In Biblical times, the agricultural cycle had everything to do with how and when God's people, Israel, celebrated God's festivals, God's holidays.
One of the Biblical holidays in the spring is literally called the "Day of First Fruits" - Yom HaBikkurim.
We celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Sunday morning, the same day the women in the Bible went to the tomb, early in the morning, and found it empty! Christ was not there! He had risen, just as He said. God’s Word makes it clear that it was early in the morning on the first day of the week (Sunday) when the women found Christ’s tomb empty.
That day was also, Yom HaBikkirum, the Day of First Fruits! Amazing, isn’t it? Only God could do something like that.
But...there’s more! So much more, that is why I’m writing this blog post.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:40:
Jesus made it clear that he would be in the grave (the heart of the earth) for three days and three nights. Over the years, I’ve heard some interesting statements about those three days. A lot has been proposed as the “three days”. Jesus also said He would be in the grave for three nights. I don’t usually hear what those three nights were.
I take God at His Word to mean exactly what He said - three days and three nights.
Growing up, I was taught that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon and rose on a Sunday morning. But, I’ve since learned that is not correct. How can you get three nights from Friday evening to Sunday morning? You can’t.
The idea that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon and rose on a Sunday morning came from the Catholic church. Most churches today, including Godly, conservative ones, blindly believe and teach this. But it does not fit Scripture. Sadly, there are bits and pieces of false teachings that come from the Catholic church that are still taught in nearly all Christian churches today, including churches that have nothing to do with Catholicism. (I'm not trying to offend any Catholics here, but many teachings in the Catholic church are false.) This particular idea or teaching is one of them.
Someone might say that, something like this, really does not matter. I disagree. It does matter. The Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled all of the types and shadows that pointed to Him, including this.
The Lord Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon at about 3:00 p.m. - the exact time the lamb was killed on Passover. (Jesus is our Passover Lamb - 1 Corinthians 5:7) After He was dead, His body was taken, rather quickly, off the cross because they wanted to prepare His body for burial before sunset that evening. Why? Because that evening at sunset began a sabbath, not the weekly sabbath, but the high sabbath of unleavened bread. The first day of the week long “Feast of Unleavened Bread” is a high sabbath and can occur on any day of the week. In the year that Christ died, that high sabbath of unleavened bread began on a Wednesday evening.
The apostle John mentions this high sabbath:
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,)...”
John 19:31
This is likely what caused the Catholic church (and other Christians) to get the day Jesus died on wrong. This was not the weekly sabbath which began on Friday evening. This was a high sabbath.
The Lord Jesus was wrapped in linen cloth and spices and buried in the tomb on Wednesday evening. His tomb was likely sealed around sunset that evening, and His disciples would have gone home to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread - bread that is a perfect picture of our Lord Jesus precious body that was laying dead in a tomb.
Biblically, a day always begins at sunset. Jesus body was in that tomb for exactly three days - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - and for exactly three nights - Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night.
When did Jesus body rise to life? On Saturday evening, right around sunset, exactly three days later from when He was sealed in the tomb on Wednesday evening.
How do I know Jesus rose from the grave on Saturday evening around sunset instead of on Sunday morning around sunrise?
Early Sunday morning, when the women went to the tomb, He was already gone! He was not there. I always assumed Christ rose from the grave just before the women got there. But no.
The earthquake that happened that Sunday morning got those guarding soldiers out of the way, and the angel rolled the large stone away, not to let Jesus out, but to let the women see inside - Christ was not in there! Jesus was not inside the tomb waiting for some big stone to be rolled away. His body rose to a glorious one. He had a new body that passed right through walls.
Jesus walked out of that tomb, the evening before, with the stone still sealed.
When I realized this, about 10 years ago at the age of 30, I was amazed! Growing up, my Bible story books and Sunday school papers pictured Jesus coming out of the tomb, triumphantly, with the stone rolled away. But no, Jesus did not wait for the stone to be rolled away.
I wondered though. If Jesus rose on Saturday evening around sunset, what did He do that Saturday night? I wasn't meaning to be funny, but did He take a nap under a nearby tree that night? Or did He go for a walk somewhere? I was deeply curious.
And then I realized. That Saturday evening began a new day, Biblically. That day was the Day of First Fruits.
That is when I discovered something astonishing!
You see, observant Israelite families rested on the Sabbath day. (Friday evening sundown to Saturday evening sundown) They did not work on Saturday because they were instructed by God to rest. After the sun set on Saturday evening, they could work again if they desired. I’m guessing that most families ate a nice meal and likely went to bed a little later since it was dark.
But on the evening that started the holiday of “First Fruits” (which is always on a Sunday), I discovered that Israelite families would do something special (weather permitting) after the Sabbath had ended.
They would go out into their barley fields (perhaps with excited children tagging along!), and under the light of the full moon, they would collect the right amount of ripe barley from their fields. The barley, being the first crop to ripen in the land of Israel, was their “first fruit” offering to God. Israelite families would often wait to cut and collect this grain on Saturday evening after the Sabbath had ended so that the grain was fresh and ready to take to the Temple the next morning at the time of the offering. (around 9:00 a.m.)
Back in those days, almost every Israelite family had fields and crops of their own. Today, we have so many different occupations, only farmers usually grow large fields. My Dad worked as an airline pilot for over 30 years, and he wouldn't know the first thing about growing a crop of barley. But, back then, that is how most families earned their living. They lived off the land. And God commanded His people to bring the “first” of their crop to Him as an offering.
With joy, Israelite families would take their barley offering on Sunday morning to the priest serving at the Temple. They would wave their grain as an offering to God in obedience to Him, trusting that, because they gave the first part to God, He would multiply the rest!
What was our dear Lord Jesus doing on that Saturday evening after the Sabbath had ended?
Just like Israelite families who were out in their barley fields that Saturday night, gathering their barley to present as an offering to God the next morning, the Lord Jesus was likely doing the same thing.
But instead of collecting barley, the Lord Jesus was likely calling the souls of the Old Testament saints out of their graves to present to His Father the next morning!
Matthew 27:52-53 says:
“And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
According to these verses, the Lord Jesus was not the only One Who rose from the grave that day - many of the saints rose after He did and appeared in the holy city, Jerusalem! Their bodies were literally resurrected from the grave!
I remember hearing and reading these Bible verses as a girl, and I used to wonder. Did those people live and then die all over again? I didn't understand then, but now, I understand.
Those early believers were the Lord Jesus’ firstfruits whom His blood had purchased! That early harvest of souls was His firstfruit offering whom He presented to His Father in heaven that Sunday morning - at the exact time of the first fruit offering! He personally took them up to heaven.
Breathtaking and astonishing, isn’t it? This is when understanding the Hebrew (not Catholic) foundation of Christianity makes everything so clear, so deep, and so beautiful. Christianity is Hebrew at its very foundation. (Christianity began in Jerusalem, not Rome.)
This is why Jesus told Mary not to touch Him when He spoke to her that Sunday morning in the garden. He had not yet ascended to His Father that morning to take those believers to God as His first fruit offering.
“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
John 20:17
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”
John 20:19-20
I love the part that says:
“Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” John 20:20
Just as the Lord Jesus presented His first fruit offering, those early believers, to his Father in heaven, He promises that He will return to gather an even greater harvest of souls someday.
Christ’s first fruit offering is a guaranteed promise of that coming harvest!
Like the disciples, I will be glad to see the Lord when He returns for those who belong to Him!
