As Jesus taught about the kingdom of God in his ministry, he preached through parables and questions and a sense of humor based on irony and even puns. He was never cruel but was often direct and he used props and relatable experiences to demonstrate his points. Essentially, Jesus communicated like an autistic person. We don’t often think of Jesus as funny, especially given the serious topic of his ministry. However, Jesus did use humor, whether it was through ironic anecdotes that his listeners would have found relatable or through wordplay that is lost in the linguistic translation.[1] Jesus had a well-rounded personality that we simply have difficulty seeing from our distanced position across time and culture. However, like autistic people, those who were close to him and understood him were able to fully appreciate what he had to offer, just as we can with enough devotion to learning.
As Jesus taught, he used a unique form of storytelling in parables. While such stories of Samaritans and kings and farmers may seem inherently biblical for us, these stories would have described everyday experiences for many in Jesus’s time. Instead of simply asking his listeners to step into the sandals of the poor or the disabled or even God, Jesus connected these unfamiliar points of view to experiences that his listeners would have known. Autistic people are often warned not to respond to someone else’s story with a personal story of our own but that is simply how we show empathy and how we prefer others show empathy with us. Simply saying that one understands the pain we experience seems shallow and effortless but sharing a story of similar experiences demonstrates a true understanding of our feelings. Jesus employs this same form of empathy to teach about the least of these in society and how to live one’s faith in a way that is already familiar. Preaching about faith would have led to much confusion but depicting faith within the context of agriculture turns it into something more understandable. By utilizing the autistic tendency to rely on connecting stories, Jesus is able to spread his mission to a diverse group of people.
Jesus also utilized a trait common in autistic people referred to as “black and white thinking” as he often presented situations where there were two opposing examples. Like many autistic people, Jesus knew that situations were more complicated than just one right decision and one wrong decision but it helped to think of things through contrasting examples before diving into the spectrum of human behavior. We can see stories of the rich man and the widow giving their tithe, the sheep and the goats, the Samaritan and those who passed by, Martha and Mary, and countless other examples.[2] Jesus could use these moments of black or white thinking to best articulate his lesson in the moment. We are assured in the story that both Martha and Mary are devout followers of Jesus but, in this moment, Mary is the one who needs to be supported and Martha is the one denying that support. By utilizing this form of mental processing, Jesus was not only able to get his lessons across to listeners but was able to speak against stereotypes. For example, even in the phrase “black and white,” we tend to associate black, darkness, or shadows with evil and death whereas white, light, and brightness are associated with goodness and light. Not only does this often result in rather racist-sounding hymns and imagery but it prevents us from seeing all the benefits of darkness and dangers of brightness. Jesus ensures that his black and white stories flip this stereotype on the head, identifying the widow as one to be revered rather than merely pitied and the Samaritan as a generous healer rather than a dangerous foreigner. Black and white thinking is often stereotyped as archaic and surface-level thinking but Jesus used black and white thinking to provide insight and challenge stereotypes.
This same form of outreach can be seen in Jesus’s miracles. Jesus uses miracles in the same way autistic people use kinesthetic or visual forms of learning. It can often be difficult to understand the traditional form of teaching in our society because it is always designed for the neurotypical audience and never for us. However, when we are able to use different learning styles such as physical diagrams or props, we can better analyze the material. Jesus uses his miracles in this way, never to simply put on a show but always to teach a lesson. Instead of simply telling people to treat lepers and blind people better, he uses healing, not merely to remove disabilities, but to show those around him that disabled people are just as valid as any other human.[3] He uses props of loaves and fishes to teach about the power of generosity and he uses the practical actions of walking on water or pulling fish from the other side of a boat to put the unfamiliar concept of faith into a physical manifestation others can observe. By making sure that his disciples can process his lessons in a variety of ways, Jesus is able to create a ministry that is open to all. By creating what is referred to as “universal design,” where a teaching environment employs as many forms of accessibility as possible, Jesus demonstrates how he processes the world and how he allows others to process the world as well.
Even still, Jesus’s forms of teaching did not make sense to everyone. There was a communication divide between his lessons and those who already believed themselves experts on how the world worked and how to live one’s life, a divide autistic people face all too often. Jesus’s responses to these religious and political leaders were often blunt but never cruel, even if they did cause the leaders to react with anger. In these cases, Jesus often answered their questions with questions of his own.[4] In fact, many of his teaching moments came through questions. As accusatory as the questions from these leaders may have been, Jesus, like any other autistic person, loved these questions. They provided him with the opportunity to dive deeper into the kingdom of God and explain these tricky topics through dialogue. Questions are how autistic people process information and seek clarity in topics where the answer isn’t always obvious. Jesus asked many questions that may have seemed obvious, especially about the feelings of others. He asked why people cried, why they doubted, if they loved him, if they are offended, what they want, and especially why he is so misunderstood by others. Many of these questions can be seen as rhetorical but we may also stop to consider the sincerity of them. When autistic people ask questions, it may be as a form of guiding the discussion as Jesus did but, more often than not, these questions come from a genuine place of curiosity. How would the story change if Jesus asked these questions, not to influence how people thought, but to truly grow closer in relationship to them? Even when Jesus’s questions were a simple matter of “don’t you see?” or “don’t you know?,” Jesus was seeking to understand where his disciples and accusers were in their understanding. I believe Jesus would have been overjoyed if his questions were answered with a genuine, “No, I don’t. Please teach me.” Every question was a learning opportunity and a natural form of communicating for Jesus, just as it is for autistic people as they seek to better understand one another. Of course, questions are received in our neurotypical society in the form of damaged pride and anger at those who would dare question the authorities. Questions naturally destabilize the standard way of living and thinking, tearing apart that which we thought we knew. The more Jesus questioned those around him, the more people some people learned but the more other people became angered.
[1]Faith W Eckler, “Jesus, The Punster,” Jesus, The Punster (Butler University, 1970), accessed March 8, 2023, https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1502&context=wordways. [2]Mark 12:41-44, Matthew 25:31-46, Luke 10:29-37, Luke 10:38-42. [3]Matthew 9:27-30, Matthew 8:1-4, John 6:1-14, John 21:1-9. [4]John 3:1-17.
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