The Suffering Messiah Complex in the Gospel of Matthew

Abstract

A Messiah who must suffer would have been a paradox for the Jewish people of the first century. However, in the Gospel of Matthew, even though the author notes that Jesus Christ is in fact the promised and awaited liberator of the Jewish people, the Messiah must suffer. The author prepares the disciples and his readers to anticipate this paradox by using comparisons between Jesus Christ and other characters who also suffer and by including explicit predictions of the suffering of Jesus. At the same time, the opportunity to doubt this phenomenon is permitted.