Firstfruit, Peaches, Jesus, and Resurrection

I desperately love fresh peaches right off the tree.  Sweet and juicy and wonderful they are.

We have three peach trees in the back yard at our house and each one ripens at slightly different times.  That way, you see, we get fresh peaches for two months rather than two weeks.

The first in line is the Florida Prince.  It ripens at the end of April.  And this year ripening day was today.  This morning I walked outside, as I have done in hopeful anticipation for weeks now, and found a soft ripe peach.  I picked it and devoured it and took this picture of it, the firstfruit of my peach harvest:

First Corinthians 15 is quickly becoming one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible, for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that it contains what is becoming one of my favorite metaphors in the Bible:  Jesus as the Firstfruits.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead also through a human being.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But in this order:  Christ, the firstrruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

- I Corinthians 15:20-23

Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection.  I like that so much, in part, because of my peaches.  I get “firstfruits.”  I look forward, with a good deal of longing to that first fruit.  Why?  Because it means a new era has dawned:  peach season.  When I bite down into that first luxurious peach and feel its sugary juices running down my chin, I know that more just like it are coming.  There is a whole tree of fruit just about to ripen:

And so it is with Jesus.  Jesus is the firstfruits of The Resurrection.  In his resurrection a new era dawned – the Kingdom of God has broken into this world, the future has already happened in one man.  And it also means that more is to come.

In other words, what happened to Jesus will happen to God’s people.  Resurrection.  Jesus is the firstfruits – the first to experience The Resurrection – and that means more just like it are coming.  At the end will be The Resurrection for the rest of us and we will get our bodies back (just like Jesus did) and death will have no more power over us.

And just like Jesus, we will really have our bodies back.  We won’t just be disembodied spirits floating around in the clouds.  Look at these words, describing Jesus post-resurrection body:

And while they were still taking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I myself!  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

- Luke 24:30-39

Just after that Jesus shares a mean with his followers.  He eats with them.  So we, at the resurrection, will get real bodies.  We’ll get to eat.  And talk.  And, apparently, appear and disappear and maybe walk through walls.  We’ll have bodies, but they will be changed.  It is hard to say what it will be like, exactly, except that Jesus was the first and we’ll follow suit.

So as I enjoy my peaches I will ponder the wonders of The Resurrection of Jesus and the wonders of my own future resurrection.  And I can’t wait to find out how sweet the peaches are on the renewed Earth and how perfectly my resurrected tongue will be able to taste them!