Understanding the Passover, the time of Jesus Christ’s death and the Day of First Fruits
The Day of First Fruits, also called Yom Bikkurim, occurs on the following first day of the week after Passover, which is Sunday. The first fruits offering is made in the Temple on Sunday Morning, giving thanks to Yehovah and asking Him for a good harvest year. If Passover is on the Sabbath, they wait until the following day, which is Sunday evening, to bundle the barley an hour before sundown, and will cut and carry the barley into the Temple after sundown the following Saturday, so that they will not do extra work on the Sabbath. Meanwhile, the High priest stays in seclusion, in a cave in Mt. Moriah, from the time the barley is bundled, until the time the barley is offered in the Temple.
On early Sunday morning, the first wave was when Mary (of Migdal) tried to hug Yeshua (John 20:17), He said “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father”. What He was saying is that since He was the High Priest of the Kingdom, He was still in seclusion and could not be touched until after he had presented the First Fruits offering (the 24 elders) before the throne in Heaven, as the First Fruits of the resurrection of the saints. Jesus returned to Earth later that morning and met the women of the second wave (Matt 28:9), allowing them to touch Him. Later that afternoon, He intercepted the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The final feast of the Spring is the Feast of Weeks, which we will discuss next in Part 5.
