This year, “He Gets Us” played estimated at $17.5 million on two Super Bowl commercials as part of their billion dollar advertising campaign. Advertising showed a series of images of people in various circumstances in response to the question “who is my neighbor”, alluding to Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor” in Matthew 22:39. THE second advertisement depicts Christians washing the feet of various people who many might consider their ideological opponents. The minute-long ad ends with a line of text that says, “Jesus did not teach hatred. He washed the feet,” referring to John 13:1-17 in which Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.
Unfortunately, by focusing too much on “us” and not enough on Christ, advertising prioritizes evangelism and cheap grace over the gospel message. The end result of this kind of watered down Christianity is ultimately a dying Church.
The cult of self-worship
Rather than proclaiming the good news that Jesus was “declared the ruling Son of God” by his death and resurrection, redeeming creation and calling all its creatures to live under his lordship, these advertisements focus on the friendly but wayward “neighbor”, suggesting that a undiscriminating love of humanity is the heart of the Gospel. In this way, the “He Gets Us” ad campaign only perpetuates our society’s cult of self-worship.
Jesus undoubtedly taught us to love one another. But that’s not all he taught: he also taught repentance and self-sacrifice. Jesus called us to lose our lives for him and told sinners, out of love, to “go and sin no more.” To make Jesus more palatable, the “He Gets Us” foot-washing ad ignores the key context of the biblical story of foot-washing and distorts Jesus’ radical call for transformation into affirmation and acceptance tacit of our cultural norms of morality.
Jesus did not wash everyone’s feet during his earthly ministry. He deigned to purify the feet of his disciples, those who had chosen to follow him. This episode in Christ’s life is certainly an example of the kind of humility and servant’s heart that his disciples must have, but it was also a foreshadowing of the kind of saving spiritual cleansing that only occurs in those who repent and believe in him. .
The problem with the ads is not necessarily that they deploy images explicitly designed to reflect the social justice perspective that dominates dominant culture. It is important to meet people where they are and speak to them in their language. The problem is that this awareness comes at the expense of the gospel message – that Jesus is Lord and we are his subjects.
Christians are indeed called to love sinners, but love requires wanting the good of another, which means challenging others to abandon their lives of sin for a life in Christ. Kneeling to sins to be harmless is not love but an exercise in cheap grace.
A castrated gospel, an empty church
What’s more, such a sterilized gospel fails to fill the pews, suggesting that the champions of an overly simplistic and ambiguous gospel of “He gets us” don’t seem to understand what will make Christianity attractive.
Christianity in America is on a rapid decline for several years, a worrying trend which seems destined to continue in the decades to come. Although this decline has affected most faithsthe so-called Seven Sisters of Mainline Protestantism were hit particularly hard lose on average 25 percent of their members over the past two decades. This precipitous decline is undoubtedly due, in part, to the interest of major churches in becoming agents of culture rather than agents of Christ.
Some sects of the mainline churches even tend to favor what is called gay marriage And abortion and their clergy is more progressive even as their congregations. Yet despite adopting more mainstream perspectives on culture war issues, often in opposition to mainstream Christianity, these churches continued to be most affected by America’s de-Church.
On the other hand, groups that tend to be more subversive toward mainstream progressive culture, such as Pentecostals And Traditional Latin Mass Catholics, are the few Christian traditions in America to experience growth in recent years. This growth is undoubtedly the result, in part, of the fact that these traditions offer something that culture cannot: the challenge of embodying the image of Christ.
The Gospel is offensive to the sensibilities of the world. This is not something Christians should be ashamed of, but something to celebrate. The radical love of Christ is what we have to offer the world that no one else has, the good news that the Lord of all creation will submit to suffering and death so that we can find satisfaction superabundant of everything we aspire to.
Instead of changing Christ to reflect the culture, Christians must challenge the culture to reflect Christ. And that means inviting people to a life of holiness – without kneeling to their sins.
Tyler Cochran is a law student at the University of Iowa and a master’s student at Houston Christian University. He writes on religion, politics and culture and his work has been featured in National Review, Townhall and The Christian Post. Follow him on Twitter @tylercochran54.
