There has always been reason to distrust the “Jesus Gets Us” ads which have appeared all over the TV over the past couple of years.
On the surface, sure – this is a group which says it’s promoting Christian values to a culture which is losing them, and trying to say that Jesus’ teachings apply across the various socioeconomic divides we have in America. At various times the ads have referred to Jesus and the apostles as a gang – but a good one – and they’ve talked about Jesus as an incredibly rich man who invested in others.
Some of that stuff has been quite clever, though perhaps scraping the edge of the heretical.
Then last night we got this, and it was something of an unmasking…
You’ll notice that the ad depicts a series of foot-washings that in each case appear to be a conservative, or at least more traditional, American washing the feet of someone who appears to be of a left-wing perspective. That’s conspicuous – our reaction initially was to ask whether it wouldn’t have been more effective to show things going both ways?
But these things can’t be taken as accidents. They spent some $14 million per spot on those ads at the Super Bowl. It’s hard to imagine they weren’t constructed precisely as the group behind them wished.
But judging from the reaction, this didn’t advance the group’s agenda all that well. If anything, it called their motivations into question (and rightly so)…
There’s a reason the “He Gets Us” commercial didn’t show a liberal washing the feet of someone in a MAGA hat, or a BLM protestor washing an officer’s feet. That would’ve been actually subversive.
Because they were strictly following oppressed v oppressor intersectionality… pic.twitter.com/R1ZS1wkTQ4
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) February 12, 2024
And it’s framed in this devilishly clever way to where anyone mad about the commercial is made to look like they’re “preachers of hate,” angry at the very idea of foot washing. A deceptive, nasty, passive-aggressive, but effective tactic.
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) February 12, 2024
The "he gets us" feet ad about Jesus seems to imply that Jesus was cool with all kinds of sinful behavior. He wasn’t.
He didn’t go hangout with prostitutes or any other sinner because he accepted the choices they made, he did it to inspire them to change.
"Go and sin no more"
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 11, 2024
So, it turns out the people behind the He Gets Us ads don’t all even claim to be Christians. It also includes ppl who don’t believe Jesus was the son of God but have a “deep admiration” for him and are “curious” about his story. This explains a lot.https://t.co/TuFVmATAYM pic.twitter.com/uzdKWts6Ch
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) February 12, 2024
He Gets Us framed evangelism with a leftward tinge, communicating the respectability of certain sins over others in our culture (although I’m not sure the ad even communicated that the respectable sins were sins at all).
It is curious that Jesus never showed up washing feet at a…
— Andrew T. Walker (@andrewtwalk) February 12, 2024
The ‘He Gets Us’ ad hits every woke point. It is nauseating. They’re making up who Jesus was, and is. Don’t be fooled by their deception. pic.twitter.com/lvAaBqb1AZ
— Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) February 12, 2024
Those reactions are exactly correct, and it’s why we now know this is an attempt at lecturing those Americans with more traditional – which is to say Biblical – cultural and moral worldviews that we have to accept that which we’re taught is sinful.
Jesus did not just go around washing just anybody’s feet. He washed the feet of the apostles. The lesson that teaches is about leadership, not culture or acceptance – a good leader, and Jesus was the best leader the world has ever known, is a servant to those he leads.
Which Jesus was.
Toward sinners he was hardly subservient. He brought a makeshift whip and a big dose of righteous indignation to chase the moneychangers from the temple, and his message to the prostitute whose life he saved was not acceptance.
It was “go and sin no more.”
Meaning that Jesus preached repentance. He didn’t preach tolerance and acceptance. Jesus was all about setting standards, not knocking them down.
The idea that Jesus’ modern-day followers should be at an abortion clinic to wash the feet of the practitioners of infanticide there is offensive and absurd beyond belief. He would have brought a whip, not a bowl and a rag.
It’s hard to even fathom how this could possibly have been a message Christians thought would spread a biblical worldview.
Some of the other “Jesus Gets Us” messages could be interpreted either way. This one puts the whole thing in a very clear focus.
This is a psyop aimed at demoralizing Christians and traditional Americans, and it ought to be denounced as such.