But no one had ever yet known the Father in the way in which Jesus knew Him, and to this knowledge of Him he draws other men’s attention, and thereby does “the many” an incomparable service. He leads them to God, not only by what he says, but still more by what he is and does, and ultimately by what he suffers. It was in this sense that he spoke the words, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; as also, “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.” He knows that through him a new epoch is beginning, in which, by their knowledge of God, the ”least” shall be greater than the greatest of the ages before; he knows that in him thousands—the very individuals who are weary and heavy laden— will find the Father and gain life; he knows that he is the sower who is scattering good seed; his is the field, his the seed, his the fruit. These things involve no dogmatic doctrines; still less any transformation of the Gospel itself, or any oppressive demands upon our faith. They are the expression of an actual fact which he perceives to be already happening, and which,, with prophetic assurance, he beholds in advance. When, under the terrible burden of his calling and in the midst of the struggle, he comes to see that it is through him that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the poor have the Gospel preached to them, he begins to comprehend the glory which the Father has given him. And he sees that what he now suffers in his person will, through his life crowned in death, remain a fact efficacious and of critical importance for all time: He is the way to the Father, and as he is the appointed of the Father, so he is the judge as well.
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