Another Super Bowl has come and gone, and there was plenty to talk about. Fly, Eagles, Fly (and How ‘Bout Them Philly Dawgs), for one thing. And how about the crowd's love for Donald Trump and their opposite reaction to Taylor Swift?
I didn’t watch the halftime show, and I wasn’t crazy about Jon Batiste’s version of the national anthem as he played the world’s ugliest piano. I’m also not a massive Lauren Daigle fan, but I enjoyed the Louisiana-fied arrangement of “America the Beautiful.”
And then there were the commercials. My friend and colleague Sarah Anderson covered the virtue-signaling ads, and there was also some weird fixation with flying facial hair. But like clockwork these days, we can count on the “He Gets Us” campaign to present a watered-down Christian message with woke undertones.
Remember last year’s commercial? It included images of people washing the feet of others like Jesus did, but the transgressive act was always the “oppressor” washing the feet of the “oppressed.” The backlash was strong.
This year’s ad message was far more subtle. The one-minute spot centered on the question, “What is greatness?” To the soundtrack of Johnny Cash’s cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” we see images of people serving and helping others.
There’s so much to unpack here. For starters, there’s the soundtrack. I love Johnny Cash, but I’ve always thought that “Personal Jesus” is borderline sacrilegious. I’m not alone.
“While I love Johnny Cash's cover of this song, the original intent of the Depeche Mode song is [a] mockery of faith, not embracing of it,” notes my RedState colleague Jennifer Oliver O’Connell.
The message of the ad comes straight from Jesus’ explanations of greatness to His disciples:
A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
Luke 22:24-27 (ESV)
But the ad highlights the word “greatness” in yellow, so it’s not hard to miss the subtle dig at the phrase that has dominated our political discourse lately: “Make America Great Again.” Yes, in Jesus’ economy, we’ll be great by serving and caring for others, but “great” is a vague enough adjective that it can describe tons of different things in tons of different contexts.
There’s one particular shot 18 seconds into the spot that’s another dig at conservatives. A man pressure washes graffiti on a building that reads “Go Back” as a dark-skinned girl watches from inside through the window. Vandalism and cruelty toward anyone are uncalled for, but the commercial sounds that dog whistle anyway and suggests that anyone who wants illegals out of our country is xenophobic — and therefore not “great.”
Most of all, like all of the “He Gets Us” ads, this commercial presents an incomplete gospel. There’s no repentance and no call for life change. O’Connell calls it “a bloodless gospel and an anemic depiction of good works with a little Jesus sprinkled in.”
“There is no escaping the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” she writes. “You will either react with surrender to its truth, or be mowed down by that truth. But there's no middle road, and He Gets Us is once again trying to convince you there is.”
“Nothing in this ad points to sin, righteousness, or Christ's sacrifice,” she adds. “It is a series of disjointed images that are equivalent to a pat on the head. ‘I'm okay, you're okay.’ When the gospel tells us that we are not — otherwise, why would we need a savior?”
Wes Langeler writes at the country music site Whiskey Riff:
The campaign solely focuses on the aspects of Jesus that culture wants to believe in, and find easy to accept, while intentionally leaving out what culture doesn’t want to believe about Jesus. The scary stuff, the sin stuff. And sure, maybe that can open the door to someone, but overall, I think the message missed the mark. WE get Jesus should be the selling point, not that he “gets” us.
That incomplete gospel message might be the worst thing of all about “He Gets Us.”
The point of the Gospel is not that Jesus “gets us”, but that He changes us.
— Shane Pruitt (@shane_pruitt78) February 10, 2025
I am for any campaign that brings people to the gospel, but, again, He Gets Us misses the mark. There is nothing at all in their ads about who Christ is or why we need Him. It’s not even remotely implied. If anything, an unbeliever walks away feeling affirmed that Jesus is, at…
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) February 10, 2025
Of course, the commercial directs people to the “He Gets Us” website, but I have a tough time believing that people are going to stop eating their wings, drinking their beers, and cheering on their teams during the Super Bowl to visit a website and research the truth of the gospel below the surface of the spot.
The hearts of the folks at “He Gets Us” may be in the right place, but the subtle digs at conservatives and the incomplete gospel message render their work ineffective. Until they fix those things, their reach may not be what they intend.
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