Like some of you, I watched the Super Bowl. I’ll admit, I know nothing about football, but I do enjoy watching the commercials. Dave forgot about that at first as he had recorded the game and we typically fast forward through all commercials, which we did do with the halftime show. Watching the commercials with an overtime game made for a long program, but the ending was exciting.
What I want to talk about in today’s blog is the two “He Gets Us” commercials during the game. You can read my thoughts on last year’s He Gets Us commercials @ Yes, He Gets Us, But He Doesn’t Want to Leave Us Where He Found Us.
My overall opinion of the 2024 He Gets Us commercials, Who Is My Neighbor? and Washing Feet, were much like last year. They reinforced the secular voices calling Christians who oppose a sinful culture as intolerant and haters. The commercials falsely portrayed Jesus and condemned Bible-believing Christians. That was the inference I got from watching them and I’m sure many others did too.
The two commercials depicted a social justice Jesus who loves everyone. He does love everyone, but He doesn’t love everyone’s sinful actions. Jesus hates sin that destroys the people He loves. He went to the cross to offer redemption, forgiveness, and salvation from our sins. These commercials don’t portray or even imply that gospel truth.
Who is My Neighbor? depicted a variety of people culminating with a final slide: “The one you don’t know, value, or welcome.” Insinuating that these people, or people like them, aren’t visible even to preachers, missionaries, evangelists, outreach ministries, churches . . . . Christians.
As believers, we know the biblical reference is Luke 10:26-37. A nonbeliever probably wouldn’t recognize that reference.
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he [Jesus] replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus went on to share the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37.
The second He Gets Us commercial had a variety of people having their feet washed by people who looked different than them. The ending slides read, “Jesus Didn’t Teach Hate. He Washed Feet. Jesus Gets All of Us.” If you didn’t see the commercial, here it is. You can make your own determination. But what raised me up off the couch, just like last year, was their implication that if you oppose sins like abortion or homosexuality, you’re a hater. Feeding right into the Marxist, secular, and dare I say, partisan political agenda and propaganda.
Actually, Jesus only washed the feet of his disciples. In Luke 7:36-50 we read the story of a sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears of repentance. “As she stood behind him [Jesus] at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (vs. 38)
Washing feet in the Bible isn’t only a symbol of humility and service, but also a powerful metaphor for spiritual cleansing and forgiveness. It symbolizes the spiritual purification and reconciliation offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In 1 John 1:9, we’re told, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The He Gets Us commercial didn’t portray the significance or true meaning of foot washing. Jesus does love all of us, but He wants us to repent from our sin, turn away from it, and ask for forgiveness. That’s the complete message of the Gospels. “Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” (vs. 48)
Questioned about the use of foot washing in a CBN interview, Jason Vanderground, president of the marketing firm Haven and co-creator of the He Gets Us campaign, said their goal was to get people to go to the He Gets Us website to ask their questions and learn more about the meaning of the ads. When asked how many people actually responded, he evaded the question and told a story about someone who talked to them in the streets of Las Vegas.
Pastor Inspired to Make ‘He Saves Us’ in Response to ‘He Gets Us’
Interestingly, in Northern Ireland, Pastor Jamie Bambrick was watching the Super Bowl and saw the He Gets Us commercials as a missed opportunity. I totally agree. He graciously said they might be well intentioned, but they “put a Jesus-shaped stamp of approval on the values and actions of our generation common today. Things Jesus considers sin and is strongly against like homosexuality and abortion.”
“I think a lot of Bible-believing Christians viewed [‘He Gets Us’ ads] and went, ‘You know what, this just isn’t a reflection of the Gospel, and it’s not a reflection of our heart toward the lost, either'” Bambrick said.
Pastor Bambrick emphasized that the He Gets Us campaign portrays a false gospel of what the church must do and therefore Jesus would do. The ads imply your sins are not a problem or something needing repentance. You see a message that all God wants the church to do is love, affirm, and accept everyone and their actions, even when sinful. We do love, but we don’t affirm every action and we don’t accept everything as being moral and right.
Christian Post reports that Pastor Bambrick believes the ads were implying that “if the Church calls people to repentance, if the Church calls people to turn from sin, that is preaching hate, which of course it isn’t. . . That is an act of love, it’s an act of grace” he said.
“My experience with most Christians is that we actually love those who are in sin, but we love them enough to want to see them set free from their sin,” he said. “We love them enough that we want to see them delivered and brought to newness of life in Christ; to turn from their sin and be saved from it — both obviously from the eternal consequences of sin, but also in this life, how much better it is to walk with Jesus.”
He went on to ditto my reaction that the perception from the He Gets Us commercials will be that Christians who are calling on the world to turn from their sins are haters preaching and teaching hate. These commercials played right into the playbook of attackers of Christianity who call us the “oppressors” because we’re against killing babies, gender manipulation, mutilating children, and same-sex sexual relationships.
The true gospel is not a message of hate; it’s a message of love that Jesus is calling us to share. He loves us enough to lay down His life to cleanse us from our sins while we were sinners. That’s not hate, that’s amazing love. Love says we see you as someone who can be rescued from your sin!
So Pastor Bambrick felt inspired to make a powerful video ‘He Saves Us’ of people with testimonies of life-changing transformations. The slideshow in Bambrick’s video includes Kat Von D, a tattoo artist and TV personality who became a Christian after renouncing witchcraft; Josh Timonen, who became a Christian after helping atheist Richard Dawkins write a book against God; John Bruchalski, an abortionist turned OB/GYN; and Steven Bancarz, who repented of New Age practices.
Other portraits include former jihadist Mohamad Faridi, former KKK member Mike Burden, former drag queen and prostitute Kevin Whitt, former porn star Brittni De La Mora, former gang leader Sebastian Stakset, former drug addict Jeff Durbin, former trans-identifying woman Laura Perry, and former lesbian activist Rosaria Butterfield.
All slides show their former and current life with the same music in the background as in the He Gets Us foot washing ad. Closing captions on He Saves Us are: “Jesus Doesn’t Just Get Us. He Saves Us. He Transforms Us. He Cleanses Us. He Restores Us. He Forgives Us. He Heals Us. He Delivers Us. He Redeems Us. He Loves Us. Such were some of you.”
Pastor Bambrick said he hopes his video shows “the heart of Jesus” and reflects the love Christians have for those who remain enslaved to their sins.
‘He Saves Us’ is one minute, as was the foot washing slideshow. The two He Gets Us ads totaled 75 seconds. 30 seconds of commercial time during Super Bowl costs $7 million, not to mention the cost of making them. What a waste of money and opportunity.
Pastor Bambrick made his video in an hour, posted it on X, and it immediately went viral with millions of views. Praise God! He said the majority of comments were encouraging and positive.
Here is more of his interview Pastor Makes a ‘He Saves Us’ Ad in Response to ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Ad, and It Goes Viral | CBN News. I hope you’ll take a minute to check it out and especially watch He Saves Us and share.
Let’s hope that He Saves Us and even He Gets Us has people talking about Jesus. We can pray that they open doors for people to seek out the true Jesus of the Bible.
Jesus was perfect as a human. Not one of us is perfect. Even though if you look closely in the first frame of the foot washing commercial, the girl on her knees doing the foot washing is wearing a white T-shirt that says “perfect.” A subtle message that believers see themselves as perfect. Not so.
Jesus was and is God. That’s the Deity and saving grace of Jesus that’s missing in the He Gets Us campaign. “The Father and I are one.” John 10:30
He understands us. He loves us. He wants us to live holy lives. He doesn’t want us to live sinful lives. He Saves Us.
15 For we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15
Library Update
On Valentine’s Day, three of us attended the Garden Valley Library Trustees Board Meeting for the second time where we were successful in having removed from their November minutes the reference to us as “people in favor of censorship.” We continued to request that seven books targeted to children with obscene and pornographic material be removed from the library shelves and the online library catalogue.
I read the Idaho 1972 code on the definition of obscenity and pornography to minors. Another person shared the lack of trust in the library being a safe place for children, and a third person shared the American Library Association that presents books and policies to libraries is now being led by a Marxist Lesbian whose intent is to destroy capitalism, the family and subvert Christianity. The board said they would consider these requests, but we’ll need to continue attending future board meetings.
I’m interested to get your thoughts on this blog. Leave your comments here and I will reply.
EXCELLENT blog, Janet … as always!!
Thank you, Cynthia, and thank you for sharing it!
Janet, I viewed the Super Bowl this year. I enjoy watching football and the some of the commercials.
I found it very refreshing to see the Jesus Gets Us commercials. Maybe it wasn’t the complete gospel but for those whom are searching it’s a beginning. If those commercials prick someone’s unsaved heart or perhaps someone that has fallen away, then I hope they will find the Real Jesus. That’s where the ‘church’ comes in and that’s another story. Sometimes there’s too many flavors of Christianity for some to choose and that can be a bigger problem to those who are perishing. Lord help us.
Anyway, that’s my opinion. I would hope that my unsaved loved one’s would respond even to a commercial or perhaps a movie about Jesus. Because I know HE ‘got’ me and HE saved me.
Mark 9:40 says-for whoever is not against us is for us.
Thank you for your perspective Kathy. I always welcome comments that don’t agree with me. A little more perspective is the He Gets Us campaign is a marketing company trying to reimagine Jesus as a loving tolerant human while minimizing his Deity. Their website never mentions salvation, sin, evil, hell, or Satan and says Jesus was tempted in the desert, but neglects to say Satan was the tempter.
When I typed “How can I be saved?” in their website search bar, the answer was “Sorry nothing matched your search. Jesus may have all the answers, but we’re still working on it.”
I think 1 John 4:1 might be better applied here, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
I hope you looked at Pastor Bambrick’s He Saves Us video which would’ve done such a better job of sharing the real Jesus and probably changed lives in the same 60 seconds.
Excellent analysis. I’m so glad Pastor Bambrick followed God’s leading to give a fuller perspective. Thank you.
Yes, Kathy, and if you watched Pastor Bambrick’s powerful “He Saves Us” video of the transforming truth about Jesus that could’ve been aired in the same amount of time, it’s enlightening. It truly was Holy Spirit inspired. I understand why it went viral.
Hi Janet,
Thank you for sharing the wonderful video by Pastor Bambrick! And God bless the three of you that attend the library meetings and are taking a stand against inappropriate materials in your library. Your posts are always an encouragement and challenge us to consider where the LORD may be leading us in our communities to take a stand. I will be driving through the Garden Valley area next Wednesday on my way to meet my son for the Amy Grant concert in Boise. I will make it a point to stop and to pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to speak through you and for an awakening of those in attendance to the Spirit of God. He can change hearts, open eyes, and is still the Way Maker and Miracle Worker we read about in His Word! Blessings to you sister in Christ!
Thank you, Julia for your encouragement and also for the prayers. Yes, Pastor Bambrick showed what could’ve and should’ve been done in a commercial to reach people for Jesus!