‘He Gets Us’ Gets It Wrong…Again

Another year, another Super Bowl ad gone wrong, but not just any ad – one meant to represent Christ!

Previously, Encounter News covered the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign’s advertising at the 2024 Super Bowl where they shared a montage of what they deemed to be society’s “oppressed vs. oppressor” which took on the form of priests washing the feet of gay persons and police washing the feet of black individuals.

The underlying messaging of this ad was utterly preposterous, stating that Jesus didn’t come to hate but to wash feet, clearly, the ‘He Gets Us’ group completely missed the mark!

And speaking of missing the mark, so too did this year’s message from the group which was entitled, “What Is Greatness?”

The ad shows a series of photos of people helping one another in many sacrificial ways. For example, they show people donating an organ, a woman saving someone from a car accident, and other uncontroversial actions.

Embedded in these scenes, however, are a couple of culturally-charged examples, including a man washing the words “Go Back” off a building and a man wearing a John 3:16 hat hugging another man in the middle of what appears to be an LGBTQ event.

These scenes are shown whilst the song Personal Jesus is playing in the background.

The underlying message of this ad is how you can be Jesus to someone else by being “great” in these ways.

“Jesus showed us what greatness really is. He Gets Us. All of Us.” are the final point of this ad’s messaging.

So why write an entire article about this one singular ad? To set the record straight…again.

Perspective

Some are praising these ads, stating that they serve as a net positive to the cause of Christ when in actuality, they merely reinforce a false representation of Christ.

How can we make such a claim? Easily.

‘He Gets Us’ presents Jesus in the way that culture wants him to be whilst ignoring who Jesus truly is – He is holy, He calls us all to live holy lives and how He alone brought us salvation.

The greatest act isn’t one of tolerance or diversity as presented in this year’s ad campaign, but rather, the greatest act of all is for a man to lay down his life for his friends which is clearly laid out for us in John 15:13 and this is exactly what Christ has done for us. But was this fact mentioned in this year’s campaign?

Nope, not even once!

Messaging Matters

All throughout, the message conveyed is that loving others is what makes one “great,” however, love flows out of our love for God. As such, we serve others not because we can become great somehow ourselves for this is selfishness, but rather, because our good works can give glory to God! (Matthew 5:16)

‘He Gets Us’ continually centers Christianity around human beings rather than God and that is a major issue.

Another issue with the group’s messaging is in their portrayal of Jesus as just another inspirational being; a good example of a man who understands us.

They fail to mention the fact that Jesus’s life on earth wasn’t meant to further the cause of social justice but to seek and save those who are lost! (Luke 19:10)

The idea that Jesus is a great moral example and that we can literally be a personal Jesus to others by doing good works doesn’t tell nonbelievers something different than what they already believe.

Following this train of thought merely reinforces what culture believes and that is how we can be just like (a fully human) Jesus.

As always, we look to the Bible to gain clear instruction and on this matter we know that good works are done by the believer, not so we can be the same as Jesus, but to glorify God! This is absolutely critical.

Good works don’t get us into heaven but we can use them to point back to our Creator God but for those who don’t know God’s Word and the subtlety of this messaging campaign, it would appear as though Christianity is about doing good things and that alone is what it is to be a Christ follower.

This messaging couldn’t have shared the message of Jesus in a worse possible way than this.

In the closing statement, the ad says that “Jesus showed us what greatness really is,” yet they completely missed the whole point of the Gospel!

How so?

Jesus showed us the greatness of God.

He didn’t come to earth to merely tell us that doing good things would make us “great.” He came to earth to offer us salvation, bringing us back into right standing and relationship with God. But this fact would mean that groups like ‘He Gets Us’ would have to share the truth that sin exists and so too does salvation.

So the question remains – why do they ignore how Jesus Christ alone, and not our good works, is what transforms us? Why try to make Jesus into some mere point of inspiration?

Despite the wrong message communicated by ‘He Gets Us,’ as believers, we can view this as an opportunity to shed the light of the gospel on this matter and use it to reach more people with who Jesus really is and what a Biblical definition of what it is to be great.

Greatness isn’t following the world but defying the world.

And as for Jesus? He doesn’t merely “get us,” he SAVES US.

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