A lot…I mean, a lot…of my fellow Christians have been weighing in online about the "He Gets Us" ads run during the Super Bowl, and the responses have been, unsurprisingly, mostly critical. I encourage everyone to read Not the Bee Editor Joel Abbott's excellent thoughts. And Christian commentator Steve Deace saw things similarly to Joel, holding nothing back:
To be clear, I'm all for discernment and the proclamation of the Gospel uninhibited. Clearly the "He Gets Us" ads do not accomplish the latter (though, to be fair, I don't think that has ever been their intent).
But I admittedly get a little exhausted knowing how often, in the name of discernment, Christians engage in public bouts of unproductive rage. For the sake of "preserving the integrity of the gospel," we manage to display to everyone a spirit of division and discord far more reminiscent of the world we live in than the joyful, grace-filled body Jesus prayed intently for us to become.
I don't want a partial Jesus. I'm not ashamed of the full Jesus. And I don't disagree with Christian commentators like Allie Beth Stuckey who made some accurate observations in her response to the ads:
Again, I'm on board with a full-throated proclamation of the Gospel, though I doubt that network and NFL censors would have permitted it. But with all due respect to Ms. Stuckey, Mr. Deace, and others, I am confused by the claim that the foot-washing, "makes Jesus into our image."
Nothing about the scene of an abortion-minded woman having her feet washed by a person we are led to believe is a pro-life activist - nothing about that is the image of man. Loving our enemies is not what we humans do. At all. Too often, it's not what we Christians do. And maybe that's why many of us so accustomed to fighting culture wars with the political manifestation of sin recoil when we see something like this.
Our knee-jerk reaction, conditioned by years of hostility from ungodly forces that rule us from courtrooms and legislatures, is to immediately view humble foot washing as acquiescence, tolerance, and agreement with sinful conduct. But does it? It never did with Jesus. He washed the feet of Judas, after all. That act certainly did not convey that Christ was affirming the betrayer's unrepentant sin.
Jesus served the very people He was calling to repentance and a better way to live. I don't see that as a bad strategy for us, His modern disciples, to employ.
Do I understand the tendency of the world to see us as weak? Yes, of course. And do I understand that we Christians often err by tipping the scales between grace and truth too heavily to the grace side? Yes. Out of fear of giving offense, we often fail to directly tell sinners of their need to be saved. But the answer surely isn't to push too heavily on the other side of those scales, erring on the side of truth with too little grace.
The solution should be to smash down on both sides of the scales - pour on the grace and the truth. In other words, follow the path of Jesus who was "full of both grace and truth." Yes, that means presenting the full Gospel. And yes, it also means washing the feet of others we know are sinners.
What's peculiar to me is the natural assumption many of my fellow conservatives have that an ad promoting the foot-washing of those we are inclined to see as our enemies is a slap at us. Why make that assumption? There's certainly reason to believe the "He Gets Us" campaign is operated by those who are not theologically sound. But a message showing humble foot-washing seems to square with Scripture unless I'm missing something. Again, He washed the feet of His betrayer. Who then should I be unwilling to serve?
Here's where I'd much prefer we Christians focus when discussing this ad: it should indict and convict all of us. The response conservative Christians should have to this ad, it seems to me, is not to bluster at the supposed outrage of washing an abortionist's foot. It should be to live as Jesus taught, and remind those who hate us that this is the calling Jesus puts on them as well. You know, like this:
That's Russell Moore, outspoken Christian critic of President Trump, washing the feet of the former president. It doesn't need to be Moore and Trump. It could be any number of examples, as Andrew Walker noted was missing in the ad:
It is curious that Jesus never showed up washing feet at a MAGA rally, a truck stop porn store in Alabama, to dilapidated and drugged-out factory workers in Ohio, or a white nationalist militia meeting in Michigan. If Jesus really is for all sinners, we should want right-wing racists converted as well, right? How would we respond to Jesus washing the feet of someone outside the Capitol on January 6?
The point is that washing the feet of your earthly "enemies" cuts both ways. The way of Jesus challenges the prejudices and hatred of both sides. Yes, it's a Trump fanatic washing a Biden supporter's feet, and a Biden supporter taking the foot basin and washrag to a MAGA rally.
Scripture isn't wrong when it counsels "there is a way that seems right unto a man, and the end thereof is death." If we are open to it, this ad can represent the other way. Rather than quibbling over what it didn't say - and there was a lot it didn't say - I guess I'd rather build off what it did say and try preaching truth to people with a washcloth and towel in my hand.
