On Super Bowl Sunday, a 60-second commercial aired about Jesus Christ, and no one seemed angrier than Christians. The announcement represents a image set of a person washing another person’s feet. Each pairing seems unlikely. An oil rig worker washes the feet of a climate activist. A cop washes the feet of a young black man. An elderly woman washes the feet of a young woman outside an apparent abortion clinic, as anti-abortion protesters look on. A priest washes the feet of a young homosexual. At the end of the commercial, the words appear on screen: “Jesus did not teach hatred. He washed the feet.
The ad comes from a group called He Gets Us, which is running a multimillion-dollar ad campaign essentially to reintroduce America to Jesus. Its website asks, “How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love become associated with hatred and oppression for so many?” The consistent theme of the group’s ads is that Jesus knows you and loves you.
But not everyone likes ads. First, there is the entirely legitimate question of whether it is appropriate for Christians to spend large sums of money on an advertising campaign when those sums could instead be spent, for example, on providing food or shelter to those who need it. I have wondered about this myself.
It also gets us come under fire from the left. Some people criticized the funders (including the founder of Hobby Lobby), pointing out that they also funded conservative Christian legal causes. Americans united for the separation of church and state go so far as to call announcements “a front for Christian nationalism”.
Yet if this is true, someone forgot to tell the religious right. The most radically right-wing Christians were furious about the ad, and remained so for days. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called the ads “heretic”, adding an expletive, and said“Publishing an ad that invites narcissistic, prideful and unrepentant sinners to come wash their feet is actually wrong. »
THE critical guard rolling In, and a lot of it wasn’t sweet. A Christian writer named Samuel Sey highlighted the segment ad that shows foot washing in front of an abortion clinic. “The Christian thing to do in an abortion center is not to wash the feet of a pro-abortion girl while ignoring her murderous intentions,” Sey wrote. “The Christian thing to do is to call them to repentance. »
But all the anger from the right over this ad could give an idea of its real target. Far from furtively making a case for Christian nationalism, the ads make a rather blatant argument. to Christians that perhaps Jesus would not play the cultural warrior role they imagine. This is especially true for the Super Bowl ad, which references a story known primarily to Christians.
In John 13, Jesus humbled himself, washed his disciples’ feet, and then told them, “You also should wash one another’s feet,” a warning that many Christians take literally. Foot washing, as an act of humility, is an essential element in countless churches.
The best explanation I’ve heard for the ad came from Kaitlyn Schiess, a Christian writer and speaker and frequent guest on the “Holy Post” podcast. She argued that the ad asks, “Are you ready to be ashamed of your associations?” » In other words, are you willing to risk shame and isolation to love those on the other side of the political and religious aisle? Are you, like Jesus, willing to love others even if it makes people hate you? Are you willing to love others even if they have not repented of what you consider to be serious sins?
I grew up in a fairly fundamentalist religious tradition, and my church placed a huge emphasis on the “boldly declared” model of Christian commitment. According to this model, the greatest gift of Christians to the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and our fundamental work is to preach Christ to the lost. In other words, when we encountered “the other side,” our first emphasis was on our words, and our words emphasized repentance. That’s what irritates Walsh and Sey about the “He Gets Us” ads. Why don’t they denounce and condemn sin?
When I left my fundamentalist church and joined an evangelical community in law school, I learned a different approach. This model says that there is a difference between declaring your faith and demonstrating your faith and that declarations without demonstrations are worthless.
It’s one thing to have the courage to say what you believe, but it takes infinitely more courage to truly love the people we’re often told to hate – even and especially if they don’t love you. in return. There is nothing distinctive about boldly declaring one’s beliefs. A lot of people do that. But how many people love their enemies?
This is what the Super Bowl commercial communicates. This is not to say that there is no difference between the cop and the young black man or between the oil rig worker and the climate activist – or that they should not talk of their differences. It says something much more radical and valuable: I can love you and serve you. even when I don’t agree with you.
In fact, although Jesus was obviously a preacher and teacher, Scripture makes it clear that when people were suffering or in danger, Jesus repeatedly acted to relieve their suffering. Before he asked them to follow him. He immediately showed love and compassion when people were under duress. Kindness was not conditional on prior acceptance of his teaching.
This does not mean that Jesus stopped proclaiming his message, and neither should Christians. But he was actually hated for the time he spent with the despised and marginalized. In Matthew 9For example, the Pharisees angrily asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
The older I get, the more I reject the “bold declaration” model of Christian engagement in favor of prioritizing courageous demonstrations. Anyway, why should anyone listen to our statements? How many “bold” pastors have been exposed as liars, frauds and abusers? How many of our most “bold” Christian leaders and institutions have been denounced as spectacularly corrupt?
Indeed, I am so tired of Christian scandals that I am now instantly suspicious in the presence of excessive “God talk.” Anytime people lead with their religiosity, I’m cautious. I prefer to know people’s faith through their virtues. And we know of scripture what virtues demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. How can we demonstrate these virtues? One key way is to openly love and serve people with whom you have deep disagreements.
The irony here is that, in a strange way, Americans united for the separation of church and state and their real Christian nationalist opponents generally agree. They basically see each other as enemies. But it is not the universal model of Christian commitment. Yes, there have been Christians who were offended by the ad. But there are millions of others, like me, who watched the ad and felt engaged. We asked ourselves if we loved and served our neighbors enough.
I remembered a story that left an indelible impression on me. When I was a young law student living my first year outside of my fundamentalist bubble, an evangelist and professor named Tony Campolo came to speak to our Christian community. The story he told helped me reframe my life.
Campolo was eating very late at an all-night restaurant when a group of women, clearly prostitutes, entered. One of the women, named Agnes, said her birthday was the next day and observed that she had never had a birthday party in her life. Campolo overheard the conversation and asked a man behind the counter if the women came every night. He said yes.
The next night, Campolo brought some simple decorations, hung them up, and threw Agnes a surprise party at this restaurant. She cried tears of joy and ended up taking the cake home, intact. It was the first birthday cake she received. After he left, he prayed with the people remaining in the restaurant and one of the employees asked him what kind of church he belonged to.
Campolo’s response was perfect: He said he belonged to the kind of church that throws a party for a prostitute at 3:30 in the morning. Not obviously because he approved of prostitution. But because he cared about Agnès. He had thrown this party for her before he knew how she would react, before he knew if she would leave the streets, and before he had a chance to tell her anything about Jesus. The party itself spoke to him louder than any words.
I’m still not sure how I feel about spending that much money on a Super Bowl commercial about Jesus. But I know its message is vitally important. Many “He understands us” advertisements show how Jesus shared our experiences and knows our suffering. But the Super Bowl ad did something different and more provocative. Instead of telling our nation, “He understands us,” she is essentially asking American Christians: Do we understand him?
