The Authority and Compassion of Christ

A storm falls silent at His word. A man long kept at a distance feels the touch of Jesus Himself. In these moments, His power does more than change what is happening around Him. It lets us see His heart.

The King is among us, and His greatness is coming toward the wounded.

We have heard Him announce the kingdom. We have watched Him call ordinary people to follow, bring good news to the poor, and tell a ruler that he must be born of the Spirit. Now we begin to see that kingdom take shape in the lives of those who meet Him. The King draws near to fear, uncleanness, sickness, hunger, and death.

His authority comes near. His compassion reaches into the lives of the people before Him. Again and again, the One who commands the impossible gives His attention to a person in need.

This mercy did not begin in Galilee. The LORD told Moses that He had seen His people’s affliction, heard their cry, and come down to deliver them (Exodus 3:7–8). He revealed Himself as “merciful and gracious” (Exodus 34:6), the One who forgives, heals, and shows compassion like a father to his children (Psalm 103:2–4, 8–14). Now, in Jesus, the mercy Israel had heard proclaimed stands before them. Look again at Him. The heart of God is drawing near.

The Storm Hears His Voice

The disciples have followed Jesus into a boat. They are crossing the sea when a great tempest rises. Waves cover the vessel, and the men who know these waters begin to fear for their lives.

Jesus is asleep.

They wake Him with a cry for help. Matthew records His answer to their fear, then tells us that He rebukes the winds and the sea. A great calm follows (Matthew 8:23–27).

The stillness must have been startling. A moment earlier, the storm had filled their vision and drowned out every other sound. Now the water lies quiet around them. The disciples look at one another in wonder. Even the winds and sea obey Him (Matthew 8:27).

What they witness reaches beyond the boat. The Scriptures speak of the LORD as the One who rules the sea. The Psalmist remembers that God stills the waves and brings those in trouble to their desired haven (Psalm 107:23–30). The LORD asks Job who shut in the sea and set its boundary (Job 38:8–11), and the Psalmist praises Him as the One who rules the raging sea (Psalm 89:8–9). At the sea, Jesus does what the Scriptures attribute to God’s sovereign power. His command is not merely a display of strength; it is the Creator’s authority exercised for people in danger.

He does not struggle against the storm. He speaks, and the storm obeys. The Psalmist had sung of the LORD who stills the waves. Now the disciples are watching that authority unfold before their eyes.

Yet notice where this authority is revealed. Jesus is not seated in a palace watching the danger from afar. He is in the boat with His disciples. The One whose word governs the sea has entered their fear with them.

His words about their fear are not a rebuke of every human response to danger. The disciples have not yet grasped the fullness of the One who is with them. Their fear has become larger in their sight than His presence. Jesus invites them to trust Him as they witness His authority.

We know something of that boat. Trouble rises, our hearts race, and for a moment the storm fills our whole field of vision. The Gospel does not promise that every storm will end as quickly as this one. It lets us see who is with us in the boat. The sea is not beyond His authority, and the danger cannot change who He is.

The disciples see the sea become quiet. They also glimpse the majesty of the One in their boat.

The Hand Reaching Through the Waves

On another night, the disciples are again on the sea, this time without Jesus in the boat. The wind is against them. In the darkness, they see Him walking toward them on the water (Matthew 14:22–27; Mark 6:45–52; John 6:16–21).

Peter calls out, asking Jesus to command him to come. Jesus says, “Come.” Peter steps onto the water and walks for a while himself by faith, but when he sees the wind, fear overtakes him and he begins to sink.

Jesus does not wait. Matthew tells us, “Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him” (Matthew 14:31). The Gospel gives us the movement plainly: Peter cries out, Jesus reaches, and Peter is caught.

We can almost see the moment. Peter is sinking beneath the waves, and Jesus is still standing upon them. He reaches down and takes hold of him. The water that gives way beneath Peter remains beneath the feet of Christ. Jesus does not need to find solid ground before He can rescue His friend. He is Lord over the deep, and His hand is near enough to pull Peter from it.

The Scriptures had already spoken of the LORD as the One who “treads on the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8), and whose way is “in the sea” (Psalm 77:19). Here Jesus walks upon the water, then turns that authority toward a frightened man. The Lord who rules the sea does not watch Peter sink from a distance. He reaches for him.

When Jesus and Peter enter the boat, the wind ceases. The disciples worship Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:32–33). The wonder of the scene is not only that Jesus walks where no man can walk. It is that He stands secure on the waters and bends near to catch the one who cannot stand.

The Touch That Makes Clean

Soon after, a man with leprosy comes to Jesus. His condition has brought more than physical pain. It has separated him from ordinary nearness, from the comfort of a hand placed on his shoulder and the welcome of a shared table.

He approaches Jesus with a humble confidence:

The man does not question Jesus’ power. He brings his need to the mercy of His will.

Jesus stretches out His hand and touches him.

Before Jesus speaks, His hand has already answered the man’s deepest fear. He is not beyond the reach of mercy. The Lord does not recoil or turn away. He draws near.

Then Jesus answers:

The man is healed.

The touch and the command belong together. Jesus’ compassion does not weaken His authority, and His authority does not make Him distant. He is willing to draw near, and His word accomplishes what the man cannot do for himself.

The man who had been separated can return to life among his people. Jesus tells him to follow the instruction of Moses and present himself to the priest, as a testimony to them (Matthew 8:4; Leviticus 14:1–32). His healing is more than a private change in his body. A way back into fellowship is opening before him.

The law made a way for someone cleansed of a serious skin disease to be examined and restored to the community (Leviticus 13–14). Naaman, an outsider, had also been cleansed through the word of Israel’s God (2 Kings 5:1–14). Those Scriptures prepare us to see what happens here. Jesus touches the man and speaks with His own authority. He does not explain the man’s suffering as punishment, and the Gospel does not treat his illness as proof of personal sin. He makes the excluded clean and brings him near.

We should not turn this scene into a promise that every faithful person will receive immediate physical healing. The Gospels show us the compassion and power of Jesus, and they also leave room for the sorrows believers still carry. The kingdom has drawn near, but its fullness is yet to come. Here we are given a true glimpse of the King’s heart and of the restoration He will bring to completion.

Authority to Forgive

In Capernaum, people gather so closely around Jesus that there is no room, not even at the door. Four men arrive carrying a paralytic. Unable to bring him through the crowd, they open the roof above Jesus and lower their friend down in front of Him (Mark 2:1–4).

Jesus sees their faith.

Then He speaks to the man in a way no one expects:

The scribes silently question His authority. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Their question is serious. Sin is not a debt a human teacher can erase by personal preference. The offense is against God. Jesus knows what they are thinking and asks which is easier to say, that the man’s sins are forgiven, or that he should rise, take up his bed, and walk.

Then He performs the visible sign so they may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He tells the paralytic to rise, take up his bed, and go home. The man does so, and the people glorify God (Mark 2:6–12).

The healing is astonishing. Yet before anyone can see the man rise, Jesus speaks to the need beneath the surface.

His friends brought a body that could not carry itself. Jesus sees the man. He speaks forgiveness before the crowd can see a sign, then heals him before their eyes. The visible miracle reveals the authority behind the unseen word.

The Son of Man has authority to forgive. That title also reaches back to Daniel’s vision of “One like the Son of Man” receiving an everlasting dominion and kingdom from the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus’ authority to forgive is not detached from His kingdom; it is part of the reign Daniel saw, now arriving among people who need restoration.

The Old Testament joins the language of forgiveness and healing in its praise of the LORD: He forgives iniquities and heals diseases (Psalm 103:2–3). Isaiah also looks toward a restored people whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sickness is gone (Isaiah 33:24). In the room at Capernaum, Jesus makes that promised mercy visible, beginning with the man’s deepest need and then restoring his body.

This is no performance. The man leaves carrying the mat that once carried him. The crowd has seen something more than a healing: the authority of God at work in the Son of Man.

The King who restores bodies has come to deal with the sin that separates us from God.

A Daughter and a Desperate Reach

Mark weaves two encounters together in the story of Jairus and the woman who has suffered a flow of blood for twelve years (Mark 5:21–43). One is a ruler of the synagogue whose young daughter is near death. The other is a woman whose long illness has left her weakened and ceremonially unclean.

Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet and begs Him to come. On the way to his house, the woman reaches through the crowd and touches the edge of His garment. She believes that if she can touch even His clothes, she will be made well.

Immediately, she knows her body is healed.

Jesus stops.

The crowd is pressing around Him, and the disciples wonder how He could ask who touched Him. But Jesus is not searching for information He lacks. He turns to see the woman who has reached for Him. She comes forward in fear, tells Him the truth, and hears Him call her Daughter.

He does not let her disappear into the crowd as though her healing were all that mattered. He gives her a place before Him, speaks to her with tenderness, and sends her in peace. The law’s instructions concerning a prolonged flow of blood describe the ritual uncleanness and isolation surrounding her condition (Leviticus 15:25–30). Her suffering had touched not only her body but her place in ordinary communal life. Jesus does not shame her or leave her hidden; He restores her publicly and calls her “Daughter.”

Israel’s Scriptures had already told of God answering a mother’s grief through the raising of a son, first through Elijah at Zarephath and then through Elisha at Shunem (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37). Jairus’s household stands within that history of hope. Here Jesus takes the child by the hand and speaks with His own authority, displaying the life-giving power of the King.

While He is speaking, messengers arrive from Jairus’s house. His daughter has died. They tell him there is no reason to trouble Jesus any longer.

Jesus hears them and says to Jairus:

At the house, grief has filled the room. Jesus enters with the child’s parents and a few of His disciples. He takes the girl by the hand and speaks to her. She rises and walks.

On the same road, one woman is restored and one child is returned to her family. Jesus does not hurry past the woman to reach the father’s house, and He does not forget the child while speaking with her. He sees them both.

His compassion is personal. He calls the woman Daughter. He takes the girl by the hand. He meets Jairus in the very place where fear has found him.

The miracle does not make grief unreal. It reveals that death itself is not beyond His authority. In this house, the family’s mourning gives way to astonishment. Across the Gospel story, Jesus will walk toward His own death, and the grave will not hold Him. The raising of this child points beyond itself toward the day when His victory over death will be fully seen.

Compassion for a Grieving Mother

Jesus is approaching Nain when He meets a funeral procession. A widow is burying her only son. Luke gives us those two details and lets their weight settle: she is a widow, and this is her only child. Her grief is deep, and her loss leaves her without the son on whom her future security may have depended.

She has not called for Jesus. No one in the account asks Him to stop. He sees her.

Jesus does not tell her that sorrow is wrong. He steps toward the sorrow and acts. He touches the open coffin, speaks to the young man, and gives him back to his mother (Luke 7:14–15).

That final detail reveals the shape of the miracle. Jesus restores a son to life, and He restores a mother to the son she has lost. The one who sees her grief does not remain a distant observer. His compassion moves toward her need before she can even form a request.

The people respond with fear and praise: “God has visited His people” (Luke 7:16). They remember the stories of Elijah and Elisha, who saw sons restored to grieving mothers (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37). But here, Jesus Himself sees the widow, feels compassion, and speaks to the young man. The Lord of life is standing among the mourners. Death must yield to His word.

Bread for the Hungry

On another day, Jesus and His disciples withdraw to a deserted place. The crowds follow them. Jesus sees them, has compassion on them, and teaches them about the kingdom (Mark 6:30–34).

The disciples notice the late hour and the lack of food. Their suggestion is practical: send the people away so they can find something to eat. Jesus answers by placing the need before them: “You give them something to eat” (Mark 6:37).

They see the size of the crowd and the smallness of what they have. Jesus sees both, and He does not send the people away hungry. He takes the loaves and fishes, gives thanks, and feeds the multitude. Everyone eats, and food remains (Mark 6:38–44).

The miracle begins with the compassion of a shepherd. Mark says the people were “like sheep not having a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). Jesus teaches them, and then He feeds them. Their hunger for the word matters to Him. So does the hunger in their bodies.

Then He involves His disciples. They are not asked to create abundance from their own resources. They bring what they have to Jesus, receive from Him, and carry it to the people. The hands that distribute the bread are their hands, but the provision comes from the Lord.

Jesus could have sent the crowd away. Instead, He lets His disciples bring the little they have and places it in His hands. The bread passes through their hands to the people, but the provision comes from Him. Compassion becomes something they can carry and share.

The scene recalls God’s provision of manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), the bread by which He taught Israel that life depends on His word (Deuteronomy 8:3), and Elisha’s feeding of a hundred men with a small supply of loaves, with food left over (2 Kings 4:42–44). Jesus stands in continuity with these acts of provision, yet the abundance comes from His own hands. The shepherd imagery deepens the connection: Psalm 23 celebrates the LORD who leads and feeds His people, Isaiah pictures Him gathering lambs and carrying them close (Isaiah 40:11), and Ezekiel 34 promises that God Himself will seek His scattered sheep and set one shepherd over them. Jesus sees the crowd as sheep without a shepherd, then teaches and feeds them (Mark 6:34).

He Sees the Man Others Blamed

In Jerusalem, Jesus sees a man who was blind from birth. The disciples immediately ask whose sin caused the blindness, the man’s or his parents’. Jesus refuses the assumption behind their question:

Jesus is not declaring that the man or his parents have never sinned. He is rejecting the claim that this particular disability can be explained by assigning personal blame. The man is not a puzzle for the disciples to solve or an occasion to accuse a family. He is a person before Jesus.

Jesus makes clay, places it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The man obeys and returns seeing (John 9:6–7). His healing opens into a long public conflict. Neighbors question him. Religious leaders interrogate him. His parents are afraid to speak. Eventually he is cast out.

Then Jesus hears what has happened and finds him.

The One who gave him sight does not leave him alone when his new testimony costs him acceptance. Jesus reveals Himself to the man, who believes and worships Him (John 9:35–38). The miracle has given him more than restored vision. It has brought him into an encounter with the One he can now see.

Some see a healed man and ask how to protect their certainty. Jesus sees the man. He gives him sight, receives his worship, and goes looking for him when others cast him out.

The heart of God is not revealed by blaming the vulnerable for their suffering. In this encounter, Jesus turns the disciples away from accusation and toward the work of God, then remains near to the man as the cost of his healing unfolds. The prophets had spoken of a day when the eyes of the blind would be opened (Isaiah 35:4–6; 42:6–7), and the Psalmist declares that the LORD opens the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8). Jesus’ act is therefore more than an answer to one man’s need; it is a sign that God’s promised light and restoration are arriving. The man’s healing fulfills that hope without making his blindness a punishment or a puzzle to solve.

He Weeps at the Tomb

Lazarus is sick, and his sisters send word to Jesus. The family is not a group of strangers seeking a miracle. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are people Jesus loves. John tells us that Jesus loves them, yet He does not arrive before Lazarus dies (John 11:1–6).

When Jesus comes to Bethany, Martha goes out to meet Him. Mary follows, and those gathered with her are weeping. Jesus sees her weeping and the others weeping with her. John says He is deeply moved and troubled. Then he gives us one of the shortest, most searching lines in the Gospel:

Jesus knows He will call Lazarus from the tomb. Still, He does not stand above the grief of the family. He enters the sorrow in front of Him. His knowledge of the coming miracle does not make the tears false or unnecessary.

At the tomb, Jesus tells Martha that He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Then He calls Lazarus out. The man who had been dead for four days comes forth, still wrapped in grave clothes, and Jesus tells the people to loose him and let him go (John 11:38–44).

The sign reveals His authority over death, but the tears show us the heart of the One who holds that authority. Jesus is not untouched by the pain death brings to those He loves. Isaiah had described the LORD as present with His afflicted people (Isaiah 63:9), and the Psalms say that He is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). Jesus does not shame the mourners for weeping. He stands with them, weeps with them, and then speaks into the grave with the authority of life.

There is mystery in Jesus’ delay, and we should not turn it into a simple answer for another person’s sorrow. John lets us hold two truths together: Jesus loved this family, and Jesus wept with them. His love had not left them in the hours before He came.

Lazarus will die again, but the sign points beyond one household. The prophets had looked toward the day when God would swallow up death and wipe away tears (Isaiah 25:8), and Daniel saw a hope beyond the grave (Daniel 12:2). Jesus’ tears at Bethany do not make that hope less certain; they show the compassion of the One who brings it near. He is moving toward His own death, where He will bear sin and break the power of the grave through His resurrection. The One who weeps at Bethany is the One who will enter death and emerge victorious.

The Works Bear Witness

The needs are different. A storm threatens a boat. A man longs to be clean. A paralytic needs forgiveness and healing. A woman has suffered for years. A father fears for his daughter. A widow buries her only son. A crowd is hungry. A man born blind is blamed for his condition. Two sisters grieve at a tomb.

Jesus meets each one with authority suited to the need before Him.

He speaks to the storm. He touches the man. He forgives and heals the paralytic. He stops for the woman and goes with Jairus to his home. He sees the widow, feeds the multitude, finds the man who was cast out, and weeps beside the tomb. His authority is never less than complete, and His attention is never less than personal.

Matthew later gathers many of Jesus’ works into a portrait of a day in which He heals the sick and bears the infirmities of the people (Matthew 8:14–17). The prophet Isaiah had spoken of the Servant who would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4). The Gospels invite us to see Jesus’ healing ministry within the larger mission that will lead Him to the cross.

He does not remain at a distance from human suffering. He enters it. He bears rejection, grief, temptation, and pain. The compassion we see in these moments will carry Him all the way to the cross. There the spotless Lamb will give Himself for sinners, and through His resurrection open the way into everlasting life.

Every healing is a sign of the kingdom, a moment in which the goodness and authority of the King break into the present age. These signs are not the whole kingdom in its final fullness. The disciples will still face storms. Believers will still grieve. The promise of Scripture is not that suffering has already vanished, but that Jesus has entered it, overcome sin and death, and will make all things new.

This is why wonder can live alongside honest sorrow. We do not have to pretend that pain is small in order to confess that Christ is greater. We can bring our need to Him, ask boldly, and trust His heart even when we do not yet see the answer we long for.

The miracles do not ask us to admire power from a distance. They invite us to behold Jesus. His authority reveals who He is. His compassion lets us see His heart.

The hand extended to the leper belongs to the Lord who restores the excluded. The voice over the sea belongs to the Creator who rules the deep. The Son of Man who forgives has received an everlasting kingdom. The Shepherd who feeds the hungry and weeps with mourners is the LORD who spoke through Moses and the prophets. Look again, and the old promises come into view in the face of Jesus: the sovereign Lord, the merciful Shepherd, the healer, the forgiver, the giver of life.

From His Works to His Words

These encounters let us see the kingdom as its King draws near. His works are not spectacles. They are signs of God’s mercy and authority among people who suffer, grieve, hunger, and need forgiveness.

Yet Jesus did not come only to change the circumstances before Him. He also speaks words that uncover the heart, challenge what people assume, and invite them into the life of God. The voice that says, “Be cleansed,” “Arise,” and “Do not be afraid” is the voice that teaches the way of the kingdom.

His works and His words belong together. In the miracles, we see the compassion behind His teaching. In His teaching, we hear the life those miracles announce. He calls people not only to receive what He can do for them, but to follow Him and receive the life He came to give.

In the next chapter, we will listen closely to His teaching. Jesus tells stories that open the kingdom, answers questions that expose the heart, and calls ordinary people to follow. The voice that stilled the sea and called the dead to life still speaks. Let us listen again, and behold the One who has the words of eternal life.

A Prayer to Behold His Heart

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to the beauty of Your authority and compassion. Teach us to bring our need to You with honesty and trust. When fear rises, remind us that You are present. When we feel unseen or separated, draw near with Your mercy. Forgive us, restore us, and make us attentive to the people You place before us. Give us faith to behold Your works and listen to Your words. Amen.

Scripture Notes

All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV). Excerpts are identified where only part of a verse is quoted. Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Gospel scenes are brought together thematically rather than presented as a complete chronological harmony.

1. The calming of the sea. Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41; Luke 8:22–25. Psalm 107:23–30 portrays the LORD stilling the waves and bringing those in danger to safety; Job 38:8–11 and Psalm 89:8–9 also present Him as ruler over the sea. The chapter presents Jesus’ command over creation as a revelation of His authority, while preserving the disciples’ developing understanding.

2. The healing of the leper. Matthew 8:1–4; Mark 1:40–45; Luke 5:12–16. Leviticus 13–14 describes the separation, examination, and restoration associated with a serious skin disease; 2 Kings 5:1–14 recounts Naaman’s cleansing through the word of God’s prophet. Isaiah 1:16–18 uses cleansing imagery for forgiveness. These passages illuminate the scene without treating the man’s illness as a personal moral failing or promising immediate healing in every present circumstance.

3. The paralytic. Mark 2:1–12; Matthew 9:1–8; Luke 5:17–26. Jesus’ healing serves as a visible sign of His authority to forgive sins. Psalm 103:2–3 joins the LORD’s forgiveness and healing; Isaiah 33:24 looks toward a restored people forgiven and free of sickness. Daniel 7:13–14 provides the background to the title “Son of Man.” The passage does not teach that every physical illness is caused by a particular personal sin.

4. Jairus’s daughter and the woman with a flow of blood. Mark 5:21–43; Matthew 9:18–26; Luke 8:40–56. Leviticus 15:25–30 describes the ritual status and restoration associated with a prolonged flow of blood. The raising of Jairus’s daughter recalls the life-restoring works of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37), while the chapter emphasizes Jesus’ own authority and personal attention to both women and families in need.

5. Healing and the Servant. Matthew 8:14–17 applies Isaiah 53:4 to Jesus’ healing ministry. The chapter connects these acts of mercy to His larger saving mission, culminating in His death and resurrection, without claiming that the verse resolves every question about present healing.

6. The widow at Nain. Luke 7:11–17 records Jesus raising a widow’s only son. The account echoes Elijah’s raising of the widow’s son at Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17–24) and Elisha’s raising of the Shunammite woman’s son (2 Kings 4:18–37). Luke explicitly says that Jesus saw the widow and had compassion on her, emphasizing His initiative and the restoration of the son to his mother.

7. The feeding of the multitude. Mark 6:30–44; Matthew 14:13–21; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–14. Old Testament backgrounds include manna (Exodus 16), dependence on God’s word and provision (Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalm 78:19–29), Elisha’s multiplication of bread (2 Kings 4:42–44), and the LORD as shepherd (Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34:11–24). Mark connects the miracle with Jesus’ compassion for the crowd, whom He sees as sheep without a shepherd. John 6 continues with Jesus’ teaching about the bread of life.

8. The man born blind. John 9:1–41. Jesus rejects the disciples’ attempt to assign this man’s blindness to his or his parents’ sin. Isaiah 35:4–6 and 42:6–7 anticipate opened eyes as part of God’s restoration, and Psalm 146:8 praises the LORD who opens the eyes of the blind. The passage refuses a simplistic explanation of this individual’s suffering. After the man is cast out, Jesus seeks him and reveals Himself to him.

9. Lazarus. John 11:1–44. John identifies Lazarus and his sisters as people Jesus loves, records Jesus’ grief and tears, and then recounts Lazarus’s raising. Isaiah 25:8 and Daniel 12:2 voice Old Testament hope beyond death; Psalm 34:18 and Isaiah 63:9 illuminate the nearness of God to the brokenhearted and afflicted. The delay is part of the narrative, but the chapter does not use it as a general explanation for why suffering occurs. The sign points toward Jesus’ identity as the resurrection and the life and toward His own death and resurrection.

10. The LORD’s compassion and present signs. Exodus 3:7–8; 34:6; Psalm 103:2–14; Isaiah 40:11; 63:9 reveal God as deliverer, merciful Father, and shepherd who tends His people. The miracles testify to Jesus’ identity and the arrival of God’s kingdom; compare Matthew 11:2–6 and John 20:30–31. The New Testament also presents suffering as a present reality and looks toward final restoration; compare Romans 8:18–25 and Revelation 21:1–4.