These social aspects of Jesus’s life affect the very core of his ministry. One of the most defining traits of autism is a reduced processing speed. This happens in part because of how autistic people process information, typically understanding concepts by analyzing their details and forming a conclusion (bottom-up processing) rather than examining the whole and then breaking it down (top-down processing). This often leads to autistic people not forming the same mental shortcuts that allistic people use to process situations more quickly. The benefit of bottom-up processing is that it also tends to avoid many of the mental shortcuts that are inaccurate, shortcuts that lead to assumptions and stereotypes of other people. This lack of cultural stereotypes is what defined Jesus’s relationship with the marginalized. He never considered the foreigner as inferior or the leper as dangerous or women as incapable.[1] He consistently broke the cultural norms to bridge the gap between the dominant culture and the least of these in society.
This inclusive practice can be seen by how he interacted with marginalized demographics in his life. When Martha complained about Mary’s laziness, Jesus affirmed and supported Mary’s desire to sit and listen to his teachings. This act of Mary’s was a role traditionally reserved for men while women were expected to focus on the housework. By rejecting this stereotype, Jesus forges a path for women in ministry. Similarly, as mentioned earlier, when Jesus told stories about the kingdom of God, the Samaritan or the widow were often portrayed as the heroes of the story, while the religious elite were portrayed as ethically lacking. Jesus had observed how others were perceived in the society but didn’t form the same prejudices in his own mind. When interacting with the disabled population, whether those with leprosy or blindness or paralysis, there was an element of “fixing” the disabled person that disabled theologians wrestle with today. However, in all of these instances, Jesus’s healing was never focused on the disability itself but on how these people were welcomed into society. When confronted by the Pharisees, he used healing to demonstrate the priority of marginalized inclusion over religious doctrine. Jesus ensured that the man with leprosy would be declared “clean” so he could rejoin society while he lectured his disciples on blindness, teaching them that disability was not a result of sin but rather part of God’s creation.
This inclusion of all those around him didn’t solely apply to those with whom he interacted but how he interacted with others. Jesus is known for using accessible teaching styles, as I mentioned in his parables and demonstrations. He also recognized individual needs for accessibility in his disciples and made an effort to speak to those needs. After Jesus’s resurrection in particular, there were many different reactions to Jesus’s appearance.[2] When Mary and the disciples on the road to Emmaus failed to recognize Jesus, he engaged in actions that spoke to his identity, whether in the breaking of the bread or speaking her name. This difficulty with facial recognition, also called prosopagnosia or “face-blindness,” is also common in autistic people and Jesus knew exactly how to help them. Autistic people also thrive on tactile and visual evidence. These are exactly the accommodations Thomas requested when he was not given the same opportunity as his fellow disciples to witness the risen Christ. Jesus immediately returned for Thomas’s sake and offered his scars to see and touch, speaking to Thomas’s need for accessibility.
[1]Matthew 8:1-4, Luke 10:29-37, Luke 10:38-42. [2]John 20:11-18, Luke 24:13-35, John 20:24-31.
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