What the 'He Gets Us' ad gets right — and what it leaves out

The Super Bowl this year featured a contentious ad from “He Gets Us,” a campaign that seeks to remind people of Jesus’ unconditional love and emphasizes that he “gets” us, no matter our stories or our sins.

The ad included various shots of people washing one another’s feet — a police officer washing those of a black man, a pro-life demonstrator washing those of a young girl outside an abortion clinic, and a young girl with a woman who appears to be her mother, struggling with alcoholism.

Jesus did not come to bring about a political victory but a radical revolution in every person’s heart.

The ad ended with a screen that read, “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet,” and directed viewers to the “He Gets Us” website.

The ad immediately sparked controversy, with some even calling it blasphemous. But it got a few things right.

First, Jesus did not teach hate. He told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

And he did come to serve. He dined with sinners, spoke with the “unclean” rejects of society, and even washed Judas’ feet on the night of his betrayal.

Jesus came for everyone, even those on the opposite side of the political aisle, those who have had abortions, and homosexuals. Remember what Jesus said when the Pharisees brought him a woman caught in adultery and urged him to condemn her: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

A concerning trend, particularly online, dehumanizes political rivals as “evil” or somehow less than human. Much of this appears to be a subconscious division into radical camps of “us” and “them.” But we must remember that every single person is a precious immortal soul for whom Jesus died. We can certainly hate their sins, but also remember that Jesus saw their sins in Gethsemane and still said yes — just as he did for our sins too.

He did not come to bring about a political victory but a radical revolution in every person’s heart. And the “He Gets Us” ad reflects the call of every Christian to love and humble service for all people, not just the righteous. We can judge individual actions as evil but not the individuals themselves. We can charitably correct and preach repentance but never shut the gates of heaven based on our own often faulty judgment.

Even the gravest sin is not beyond the saving power of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The ad also highlighted the need for love and a relationship with Jesus before the rules. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, he did not begin by calling out her five previous marriages. He asked her for a drink of water. I’m sure many of us have experienced similar conversations in our attempts to evangelize. Starting with rules and rebukes isn’t typically the best way to plant a seed in a person’s heart.

But what many Christians found concerning about the ad was its lack of emphasis on repentance. Jesus did not just come to love and understand but to save us from the slavery of sin. Every person who encounters and accepts Jesus walks away forever changed, while those who refuse him retain their hardened hearts. Jesus told the adulterous woman whom the Pharisees brought to him that he did not condemn her. He also told her to “go and sin no more.”

It is not enough to experience the love of Jesus and remain in sin. We all must allow his love and grace to continuously transform and renew us as we journey toward heaven.

All in all, a charitable interpretation of the main message of the ad — that Jesus loves us exactly where we are, despite our sins — is true, as is the call for all Christians to imitate this love. What “He Gets Us” might consider emphasizing, however, is that he loves us so much that he wants to save us from our sins, no matter how great. We just need to let him.