Pastor Jamie Bambrick released a new ad that seeks to redeem the “He Gets Us” campaign’s theologically ambiguous take on Jesus with a more biblically accurate depiction of what it means to follow Christ.
The controversial “He Gets Us” Super Bowl LVIII spot, Bambrick said, was “perhaps well intentioned” but “failed to convey anything of the gospel to the hundreds of millions who saw it.” Cue Bambrick’s take.
The slideshow posted to the pastor’s YouTube page begins with Kat Von D, a celebrity tattoo artist who left witchcraft to become a baptized Christian. It then cycles through several photos of people including John Bruchalski, an abortionist turned OB/GYN.
The titles atheist, jihadist, Ku Klux Klan member, drug addict, gang leader, drag queen, onscreen prostitute, LGBT activist, and more appear to convey hopeless sinners who should have no heavenly future. Yet the still black-and-white images show smiling, joy-filled people. The “former” text in classic “He Gets Us” yellow confirms the pictured people abandoned their old, evil ways of thinking and living to follow Christ and it’s completely changed them forever.
“Jesus doesn’t just get us,” the closing text reads. “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.”
The video concludes with a reference to 1 Corinthians 6:11. That section of the Bible says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Bambrick is an associate pastor of Hope Church Craigavon in Northern Ireland. His ad draws a strong contrast to the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ad campaign. It featured art of various people washing other people’s feet, a reference to what Jesus did for his disciples in John 13.
I criticized the “He Gets Us” debut Super Bowl campaign last year for twisting the gospel to fit our culture’s standards and trashing faithful Christians who hold Biblical views about marriage, sex, family, and life. The same can be said about this year’s “Foot Washing,” which was clearly designed to evoke an emotional response instead of communicating the truth about every human’s sin and need for God to forgive us.
The colorful slideshow shows a dozen examples of washing the feet of people whom they might consider their political or moral enemies. “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet,” the text at the end of the minute-long commercial reads.
One particular scene depicts a middle-aged woman washing the feet of a young girl who is presumably about to get an abortion. The art’s focus and framing seem to suggest the woman is loving while the group of pro-life protestors across the street is hateful for recognizing the sanctity of life as described in Psalm 139.
The context the commercial leaves out is Jesus’ gentle but firm command to the sinners he encountered on his travels to “go and sin no more.” Jesus preached a gospel of radical repentance, not tolerance or acceptance of sin. Yet the “He Gets Us” video suggests that, to be Christ-like, Christians must kneel before sins.
Christians are called to care for, pray for, and love sinners, yes. But condoning sin, especially that of our brothers and sisters in Christ, is a recipe for hanging a great millstone around our necks and drowning in the sea.
The “He Saves Us” mock-up, on the other hand, communicates the love of Christ without sacrificing the importance of sanctification. Followers of Jesus can’t continue in our old ways of unbelief, overindulgence, sexual immorality, or murder because we have been crucified with Christ and radically changed into morally righteous.
That doesn’t mean we won’t stumble, but it means we are actively committed to turning from our wicked ways and proclaiming the good news in its truest form every chance we get.
