Through all of Jesus’s teaching and inclusion, there were of course those who thrived in the cultural standard that Jesus was changing. Just as we see today, for every group that is able to be accepted into society, there is another group who will grow angry at that acceptance. No longer will someone be able to assert themselves as superior simply because they are the right race or neurotype or sexuality or gender. This means they will lose some of the privilege they have relied upon as people in power. Through love, acceptance, and simply being different, Jesus challenged that power. Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, mocked Caesar’s demand for taxes, criticized and corrected the religious leaders, and upset the natural balance of the social hierarchy.[1] Most importantly, a large number of people began to agree with Jesus and that was the ultimate threat to the empire.
Often, autistic people are accepted only under two conditions. Autistic people can exist as passive objects that can be forced into the idyllic role of a child-like figure that people can care for and feel good about themselves for doing so. Alternatively, autistic people who don’t fit that stereotype can be accepted so long as they seek to make themselves appear less autistic and denounce autism as a terrible burden that they’re seeking to escape through Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, essentially conversion therapy for autistic people.[2] Jesus neither obeyed nor affirmed society’s expectations and that terrified people. Instead, he spoke his mind and didn’t show any concern for authority. As most autistic people do, he didn’t recognize superfluous titles of superiority, seeing people for who they truly were and refusing to play their power game. He spoke in riddles and spoke of this kingdom of God, an unknown force that shook those who relied upon the current kingdom. This practice of disruption and disregard for authority caused tension to build around him, coming to a climax when he began to get angry.
Before, I mentioned how unusually calm Jesus would appear when others were distressed but the opposite was true as well. Autistic meltdowns are often caused by an overload of information and characterized by seemingly unprompted outbursts of emotions that make neurotypical onlookers quite uncomfortable. As is the case for many marginalized people, these outbursts of anger can be fully justified but will still form the basis for the dominant culture to dismiss marginalized messages as violent and lacking credibility. This was never so visible in Jesus’s ministry than during his week leading up to his crucifixion. I mentioned Jesus’s atypical conversation with a fig tree but Jesus didn’t simply talk to this tree, but cursed it.[3] After cursing the tree, he entered the temple and began flipping tables, even chasing people out with a whip and demanding they vacate his “father’s house” in John’s version. From the outside, this rant seems as unpredictable and illogical as any autistic meltdown. It is only because it is Jesus that we take the time to fully understand why he reacted the way he did. As with most autistic meltdowns and shows of anger, it may seem excessive but is only born out of information or sensory stimuli that others don’t possess. Someone may witness an autistic person suddenly break down at a small inconvenience because they don’t recognize the microaggressions imbedded in society, or hear the constant buzz of florescent lights, or smell the perfume of someone twenty feet away. Unlike those around him, Jesus knew the stakes at play. He knew that this fig tree represented the dangerous risk that could occur within the church, beautiful on the surface but ultimately fruitless. He knew that these vendors at the temple were transforming religion into a business rather than a place of holiness, threatening the kingdom of God by turning scripture into a mere selling point. Most importantly, he knew he was going to die soon and he did all of this with that knowledge hanging over him. Upon careful examination, Jesus’s anger makes complete sense. If we applied the same introspection and faith to the autistic community, what would we be able to learn?
At this point in the story, we have a radical traveler who has been gathering a group of devoted followers. He is preaching a message that disrupts society and challenges the systems of government, even the leaders of the religion he practices. His anger finally convinces the local authorities that he is dangerous and such a divisive and atypical figure cannot exist in this world. It was for this reason, for Jesus’s expression of autistic traits and accessibility to all others, that he was murdered. Jesus was a threat to everything society valued and, ultimately, an example of everything we consider divine.
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