Unlike most advertisements that air on television, Super Bowl ads are an integral part of the game-day experience and often generate as much buzz and excitement as the game itself.
Normally, these ads are known for their high production quality and funny punchlines. But one ad from Sunday’s game that drew a significant amount of attention was a more simple one from the supposedly pro-Christian campaign He Gets Us that purportedly shows Christians washing the feet of social outcasts.
“Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet,” the ad concludes after showing a montage of people getting their feet washed. This included a police officer washing the feet of a black man in a dirty alleyway, an older woman washing the feet of a younger woman outside of a “family planning clinic,” an older man washing the feet of a climate activist in the middle of a desert oil field, what looks like an illegal immigrant getting her feet washed outside of a bus, and a pastor washing the feet of a gay man.
The advertisement generated a bunch of buzz on social media, given its attempt to portray Christianity as welcoming and willing to serve people of all lifestyles and backgrounds. But in doing so, it subordinated Christianity to the whims of modern life and intersectionality.
As Babylon Bee editor Joel Berry noted, if the ad really wanted to be subversive, it would have shown a Black Lives Matter supporter washing the feet of a police officer or a blue-haired barista from Seattle washing the feet of an old cranky white man from Appalachia wearing a MAGA hat.
But this is not what the ad did because the #HeGetsUs campaign doesn’t get Jesus.
On its website, He Gets Us says that it “represents the input from Christians who believe that Jesus is the son of God as well as many others who, though not Christians, share a deep admiration for the man that Jesus was, and we are deeply inspired and curious to explore his story. We look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and themes from his life.”
But the thing about applying a modern lens to the timeless and eternal teachings of Jesus Christ is that it subordinates those teachings to the fleeting feelings of modern men.
The washing of the feet, in which Jesus washes the feet of his 12 disciples, is one of the most famous scenes of the Gospels. It takes place at the Last Supper, the day before Jesus is crucified. It is worth quoting at length the passage from the Gospel of John:
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’ After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them’.” John 13:3-17 NRSVCE
The He Gets Us campaign would lead you to believe that Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and, in turn, commanding them to wash each other’s feet is an act of acceptance of others. In fact, the way the ad portrays washing feet, it gives the sense that Christians are obligated to accept sinful behaviors. Such is the undertone of the declaration that “Jesus didn’t teach hate.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Fair enough. Jesus did not teach hate. During his earthly ministry, he dined regularly with tax collectors and prostitutes and healed the sick and dying. His ministry is one of eternal love that has echoed through 2,000 years.
But the love that Jesus taught is not the one that the He Gets Us campaign is preaching. The love that Jesus taught is a radical choice to will the good of others, which included admonishing those who do wrong. The He Gets Us campaign would do well to remember the first teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
