Christ the firstfruit: present and future joy

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (1 Cor 15:22-23)

Kirsty Birkett wrote in the first week of lockdown, "The Bible speaks frequently of joy and rejoicing... More recently, however, the assumption seems to be it is not an appropriate topic right now. My answer is, it’s never more appropriate than in a time of suffering."

Question: But where precisely is joy to be found?
Answer: Looking at Christ!
Question: Give me some more detail. What about Christ is going to help me find joy today?
Answer: Many things but here's one: Christ the firstfruit.

In Deuteronomy 26 a liturgy is described for the presenting of the firstfruits of the land. It's a gospel liturgy, full of the story of sovereign grace. It speaks (repeatedly) of what God has given, of the God who hears and delivers with great power, of his bringing his people into his place under his lavishly generous blessing and rule. And at the culmination of this happy liturgy the rubric says:

Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. (Deut 26:11)

Rejoice in the firstfruit

There is a clear present dimension of this. There is a happy meal, feasting, right now on the grain and and new wine. It's a physical feasting that delights in the tastes and textures and heartiness of the food and drink but it's a feasting very conscious of the Lord who has given these things. It is not focused on the bread alone but it traces these blessings back to their source in the good giver. In fact this meal in Deuteronomy is almost sacramental - an act of remembrance of the deliverance (v6-8) as well as a fellowship with that deliverer God and a feeding on him in hearts with thanksgiving.
But, as with the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:26), there is something not only past and present but also future focused about the rejoicing in firstfruit. It is an anticipation of a greater feast to come. More than that, it is a pledge of the greater feast, when the full harvest is gathered and we sit at the great wedding banquet.

Firstfruit as pledge of the future

There's a long Bible history of the firstfruit as pledge of the future.
When Noah receives back the dove the second time with a leaf (or branch cf Neh 8:15) of a fruit tree it is a proof and pledge of the new creation into which he would soon step (after a year of complete lockdown in the ark).
When the Israelites in the wilderness receive back the spies with their enormous bunch of grapes and pomegranates and figs (Num 13) it is a proof and pledge (which almost all of them reject) of the promised land which God has prepared for them.
In fact the idea of firstfruit as pledge and guarantee of future harvest is woven into creation itself. It is another of the sermons of creation: every harvest season the fruit trees and berry bushes and grain are preaching a billion sermons along the lines of 1 Corinthians 15:22-23: "Here is The Firstfruit, enjoy Him now but also know that He guarantees the full harvest!"

It's particularly clear with blackberry bushes. With an early warm spring as we've had in the UK this year it won't be many months before we start seeing clusters of blackberries forming. And very often you'll see one berry ripe some weeks before the others. It is the firstfruit. Pick it. Enjoy it. And know that it is the guarantee that the rest of the cluster to which it is joined will soon come.
And the great news is that we are that cluster, joined to Christ. His resurrection guarantees ours, is the pledge of ours.

As goes the head, so goes the body

There's a lovely illustration of this at the end of C S Lewis' Silver Chair. After spending most of the book trapped in an underground world of grey hopelessness, Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian find a hole in the roof through which some sort of light is coming. Jill stands on Puddleglum's shoulders and gets her head through the hole... out into Narnia! After months in caves, anaesthetised by the evil music of the witch or on the run through collapsing caverns, with no light but dull lamps, now, finally, Jill can see sky overhead and snow on the ground and trees and dancers and feel fresh air and hear beautiful music and know that she is Home!

Jill felt she could have fainted with delight

But the thing is that while Jill's head is in Narnia, her body is still in the dark of the underground world. And her friends, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian, are still in the dark underground world without a clue what's going on. In fact when Jill is pulled up through the hole they are more worried than ever, thinking that she's been captured by enemies.
There are similarities and differences with Christ the firstfruit. Similarities - the head (Christ) has entered the New Creation - entered the place of light and joy - while the body (us) remains in the shadowlands. The head is already there. And the body will follow. Where he is we shall be also.
Differences - Jill wasn't able to communicate back to her friends the good news that she had come out into Narnia. Before she could get more than two words out she got a snowball in the face then was pulled through the hole by the Narnians. But Christ, our head, has told us the good news. The whole Old Testament proclaimed that he would die and rise. He told his disciples that he is the resurrection and the life. Then he rose and appeared to his disciples, showed them his resurrection body. Then he gave his Spirit to his Church and commissioned his apostles, like Paul, to keep unpacking for us the greatness of this truth that He is the firstfruit from the dead, that the resurrection has started, that the new creation has begun in him and so our resurrection and the renewal of the earth is guaranteed and coming soon.

How does all that help us in lockdown?

It would be great to have a pledge and guarantee that we will leave this time of lockdown. If there was another country, of similar population and economics and geography to ours, that had completely overcome the virus, found a vaccine or found a way of completely protecting people and had reached the point of safely lifting all restrictions, that would, in a sense, be a pledge and hope for us to one day soon get to that point too.
But the hope we have in Christ as firstfruit is immeasurably stronger and greater - not a fragile hope of 'exit from lockdown' and a 'return to normal' but an absolute guarantee (as strong as our union with Christ) and pledge of an exit from this entire underground world of gloom, these shadowlands of death and sin and frustration and decay. Jesus is already living the resurrection life of glory and honour and power and splendour, the indestructible life of indestructible joy, we are his, and that life will soon be ours.
The route to joy now is to enjoy the firstfruit - feed on him in his Word - look at his tenderness and grace against the background of this world's selfishness and judgmentalism, his peace and happiness against the background of this world's restlessness and gloom. And long for more of him - long for the day when he will come back and make all things new - a billion times better than 'normal' - when we will finally be home and we will be more fully alive than ever as we see His face.