Lev. 23:9-14; Luke 24:44-52
The sheaf of firstfruits was typically Christ risen. "On the morrow after the sabbath" it was waved, and that was the first or resurrection day. In the ordinance of waving it we observe the following particulars:
The Jew (that is, Israel as a nation) was to bring the sheaf to the priest.
The priest was to wave it before the Lord, to be accepted for Israel.
Israel was then to offer a burnt offering with its meat and drink offering.
Israel was not to eat of the new corn in any shape till this was done.
This ordinance, very simple in its materials, was very significant of the way of a believer or of the Church touching the resurrection of Christ, as we see that way presented to us in Luke 24:44-53.
The disciples bring the sheaf; that is, they apprehend and believe the fact of the resurrection (vv. 44, 45).
Christ the true priest teaches them that this resurrection was for them—that the sheaf was accepted of the Lord for them, and He gives them a blessed pledge of this (vv. 46-51).
They make their offerings, because of this, offerings of worship and joy (v. 52).
They know of no eating, no feast, no communion, but in connection with the waved sheaf, or risen Christ. They occupy the temple only as in company with that very story (v. 53).
Such is the simple and direct illustration of the beautiful type, which the earliest moment, I may say, in the experience of the saints after the resurrection of the Lord affords us.
The principal point of attraction, at least at present with me, is in Luke 24:53, connected as it is with Lev. 23:14.
The disciples can do nothing but rejoice in the wave sheaf. It affords them their one commanding, absorbing thought. They fill the temple, not as worshiping Jews with sacrifices and remembrances of sins, but as believing souls with thanksgiving for the resurrection and the remission of sins.
It was the first day of harvest with them. They have lost sight of the temple as the due spot for rendering offerings on the waving of the firstfruits.
And in all this we have another form of owning, as David did in his day, a new place of service (1 Chron. 21). The wave sheaf of Christ risen tells us, like Oman's threshing floor, that "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." David, therefore, could not seek the former altar or the high place at Gibeon; and so the disciples here forgot the old temple, or the temple in all its wonted services, except that which belonged to the first day of harvest.
The resurrection had already done much sweet service for them. It had removed their fears, cleared many a doubt and perplexity, gratified their poor wounded affections, anticipated the toil of their hands at the great stone of the sepulcher, and the value of their spices for the body of their Lord. But now it does the sublimest service of all for them; it changes their religion. As it had already rolled away the heavy stone for them from the door of the sepulcher, so does it now roll away a yoke which neither they nor their fathers had been able to bear. It builds a temple for them fairer than Solomon's. They serve now in the sense of the victory of Jesus, in the waving before the Lord of the sheaf of firstfruits accepted for them from the door of the sepulcher, so does it now roll away a yoke which neither they nor their fathers had been able to bear. It builds a temple for them fairer than Solomon's. They serve now in the sense of the victory of Jesus, in the waving before the Lord of the sheaf of firstfruits accepted for them. "They... returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Theirs was now, as the Church's still is, the religion of the victory or resurrection of Christ.