The First Fruits

Paul isn’t one to beat around the bush, well, not for long anyway. Eventually he will get to the crux of the matter, often in a way that makes his hearers squirm. There is a debate in the church at Corinth, apparently, and it has to do with Resurrection of the dead. This is why Paul takes the time to itemize the argument. It follows last week’s text, where he asks the church to hold firmly to their faith that was proclaimed from the beginning. And for Paul a part of that original proclamation was the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits.

The phrase “first fruits” is usually used in terms of a sacrifice. We offer to God the first fruits of the harvest, the first fruits of the flocks. It refers to the best, the prime, the labor of our hands and the sweat of our brows that represents the best of what we can produce. There is an element of this in Paul’s usage of the phrase, Christ is indeed the best that this world, this flesh has to offer to the divine, to the holy one. There is no better offering than this one.

But Paul isn’t using the phrase as a means of setting Christ apart from us. Rather he presents the sacrifice and the offering of Jesus as an example for us and a promise for us as well. We too are called to live sacrificially. We too are invited to live this “more excellent way,” as Paul attempts to describe in chapter 13. More than that (what could possibly be more, you would be right to think), the example is not just for this life, but for eternity. Christ as the first fruits is the example of Resurrection. As he was raised, so we will be raised, is Paul’s argument. And he is so insistent on it that without it, our faith is futile; and we are back to square one, unredeemed, unsaved, pagan, alone, and adrift in the world. That’s how serious he is about this Resurrection of the dead thing. (We’ll look more on that specific topic next week, but you can go read ahead if you think it fits more properly here.)

One of the choices you need to make, preacher, is where you want to place the emphasis for your sermon this week. Paul is clearly dealing with a faction within the community at Corinth that no longer believed in the Resurrection. Or rather they seem to be saying that we will not be raised like Jesus was raised. Perhaps our eternity is something more spiritual, they might have argued. Perhaps it was more like the Greek understanding that at death the soul leaves the body to dwell somewhere else. We are trying to rid ourselves of this earthly shell so that we can abide in eternity with God as spiritual beings.

The reason why there is some consideration here is that there are probably some folks in your congregation who hold to that view. Some might even say that the majority of Christians today hold a view that Paul would take issue with. But is that something you want to try and deal with in a sermon? Or is this a more intensive Bible study or small-group study to be held elsewhere? Might the focus of the sermon be somewhere else?

Maybe this feels like homiletical sleight of hand to you. If we determine that this is Paul’s main point here, ought not we make that clear, making the same point? Perhaps. But remember that all of Paul’s epistles (with the possible exception of Romans), whether disputed authorship or not, were written in specific situations to deal with specific problems or understandings. So, to keep Paul’s model in mind, the preacher ought to begin with the question, “Is this the main issue facing my congregation today?” Is the understanding of what exactly happens between this life and next one the most besetting concern of the congregation, then by all means have at it. But be aware that as you read ahead and into next week’s text, even Paul admits he doesn’t really know. So, it is speculation to a degree either way.

On the other hand, if what your congregation struggles with is not the next life but this one, then we can look at this text with a new understanding. What doesn’t seem to be in dispute in the community at Corinth is that Jesus was raised from the dead. Paul slides off of that subject to make his real point rather quickly. He doesn’t spend much ink arguing that. Instead, he argues what it means for us. And what it means is that life matters. Bodies matter; we matter.

Are you catching a glimmer of a consistent theme through these texts in this I Corinthian series? “Love never ends” is not just a catch phrase or a clever grab from a famous text; it is the bedrock of the faith. It is what makes Christ real in our own hearts and in the consciousness of this world we are invited to engage in and with. Our ongoing message is that people matter because they are loved. People matter because Christ mattered. And Christ mattered so much that death was overthrown, the last enemy to be defeated, Paul said.

His real argument was not really on what entering into the kin-dom would be like, although it was an immanent reality for Paul and therefore worthy of conversation and debate. But all along, his goal was equipping the church to live as reconciled communities to faith and to bear witness to the Christ who opened the door so that they (that we) might live a new life now.