Romans 12:1 — I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

It is a constant blessing and surprise to me that each time we share the Lord’s supper — celebrate Communion — I am moved in new ways, and Jesus’s sacrifice presents itself to me in new ways.
Today I was struck by the contrast between Christmas and Easter.
In our Living Christmas Tree presentation this year we have a mini nativity. Surely every heart is touched by the sight of the tiny baby, sometimes slightly fretful but usually completely at rest in Mother’s loving arms.
Later the Magi come to pay their respects to the Messiah — now, of course, a toddler. The next stage in the life of a man.
In his play “As You Like It” Shakespeare puts the well known “7 ages of man” speech into the mouth of the cynical nobleman Jaques. The speech traces the life of a man from birth and childhood, through manhood and maturity, to extreme old age. Somehow it came into my mind this morning. Jesus, in one way, had a life interrupted. We see Him at birth, then as a toddler. We see Him as a young lad on the brink of manhood talking with the “Doctors” in the temple. The next time we see Him He is entering upon His ministry and we follow Him for the next three years. And then … Well, you know. No respected middle age or senior years. No extreme old age. Instead that shining star in His early thirties is pulled down and cruelly crucified. Those little baby feet that so touch our hearts are brutally nailed to the cross.
The thing is, it was no surprise to Jesus. I don’t think we can understand how this worked. I can’t believe the baby in the manger understood that He had chosen to make that that reasonable sacrifice. I doubt if the toddler could. (Was He, I wonder, bemused by the Magi?). I am sure that the twelve year old knew exactly what was ahead. He was “about His Father’s business”. And when Jesus entered on His ministry He knew for sure that no matter which direction He headed, all roads led to a hill outside Jerusalem.
The Magi knew. It was not for nothing that they were called “Wise Men”. They provided the anointing oil for the holy sacrifice. I almost wonder if they had someone at that sacrifice.
If Jesus had been an ordinary man the cross would have been a fatal interruption in His seven ages. But of course, He was not. He was the God-man. As I meditated on it, I saw His was not a life interrupted.
Presenting the only acceptable, necessary, living sacrifice is the natural endpoint to the journey that begins in Bethlehem. Without Christmas there could have been no Lord’s supper this morning.