Foot-washing has suddenly become a thing!
A thing of controversy, that is, because it was the central feature of a Super Bowl ad. It lasted 60 seconds and costs $14 million, and more than one person said of it, “Why wasn’t this money given to the poor instead of wasted in this way,” which is exactly what critics said when Mary poured a jar of ointment on the feet of Jesus and wiped it with her hair (John 12:1ff).
That may have been a minor controversy, but the video of people washing one another’s feet, as portrayed in the Super Bowl commercial, is now a major controversy. Or at least a big-time diversion from true religion.
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as a demonstration of humility. It was during the Last Supper, and he wanted to teach them a lesson about service. Foot-washing was common in those days, a kindness to people who traveled on dirt roads wearing only sandals or walking barefoot. We might liken it to polishing shoes, washing cars, or even serving a cup of coffee to a guest who has just arrived for a visit.
The Super Bowl commercial is part of a larger video campaign called “He Gets Us.” It was launched last year and included several commercials in last year’s football game. It is the work of wealthy white Evangelical donors who are helping, they think, other white Evangelicals present a Jesus that will be attractive to people.
(You can see all the videos at www.hegetsus.com)
In one sense, they are right. Jesus is much more popular than Christians or Christianity. The Hindu civil rights crusader Mahatma Gandhi put it this way decades ago, ” “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
So, one strategy Christians use in their evangelism is to focus on Jesus rather than scripture, church, religion, or such things. This is not a bad idea. It is, after all, the original idea of Christianity, sometimes framed as a question: what do you think about Jesus?
Furthermore, it is at the center of what Jesus said and did, presenting people with the simple invitation, “Follow me.”
But the Super Bowl commercials of “He Gets Us” have stirred up all sorts of complaints.
Last year and again this year, one wing of the Christian movement (what we sometimes call the progressives or liberals, and I count myself in that cohort) observed: “The Jesus portrayed in these commercials is not the Jesus preached and presented by the very people who made and paid for the commercials, the conservatives, the fundamentalists, the evangelicals.”
They are right about this. It has been a puzzlement to many of us. We ask, “Why don’t they act like the Jesus they present in these videos?”
But this year, following the presentation of the foot-washing Jesus, it is conservatives who are complaining. “This is woke religion,” one critic said (in a video I shared on my Facebook page).
Today, I watched the commentary of Christian Nationalist and Trump Promoter Lance Wallnau. He said, “You’ve got a woke Jesus instead of the real Jesus.” By which he means this: Jesus never washed the feet of just anybody (especially sinners and heretics and liberals) and the idea that we should “wash the feet” of everybody as a symbolic act of welcome and kindness, is a distortion of the gospel.
Wallnau continued, “I grieve when I see the resources of the kingdom going to the wrong causes, like this.”
He was referring to the Green family of Holly Lobby fame and fortune whose money is the major source of funding for the He Gets Us campaign.
Then there is this, from my friend George Bullard in a commentary on these things, and here I paraphrase: “Mass marketing strategies are ineffective as an evangelism strategy. Sharing the gospel is personal. It is one-on-one, friend to friend, person to person.”
Here is my take: I like the Jesus of the He Gets Us campaign. It reflects the Jesus of the four gospels (and not the Jesus of the book of Revelation). I applaud the designers and funders for using mass media to tell the gospel story of Jesus. We live in a digital, visual age, and many of us get most of our information and inspiration in these ways. I hope these videos inspire all of us to be humble, to attend to the needs of those around us, and to (on occasion) even to “wash the feet of the saints” (a practice encouraged by Paul the apostle in his letter to Timothy—1 Timothy 5:10).
Foot-washing has suddenly become a thing!
A thing of controversy, that is, because it was the central feature of a Super Bowl ad. It lasted 60 seconds and costs $14 million, and more than one person said of it, “Why wasn’t this money given to the poor instead of wasted in this way,” which is exactly what critics said when Mary poured a jar of ointment on the feet of Jesus and wiped it with her hair (John 12:1ff).
That may have been a minor controversy, but the video of people washing one another’s feet, as portrayed in the Super Bowl commercial, is now a major controversy. Or at least a big-time diversion from true religion.
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as a demonstration of humility. It was during the Last Supper, and he wanted to teach them a lesson about service. Foot-washing was common in those days, a kindness to people who traveled on dirt roads wearing only sandals or walking barefoot. We might liken it to polishing shoes, washing cars, or even serving a cup of coffee to a guest who has just arrived for a visit.
The Super Bowl commercial is part of a larger video campaign called “He Gets Us.” It was launched last year and included several commercials in last year’s football game. It is the work of wealthy white Evangelical donors who are helping, they think, other white Evangelicals present a Jesus that will be attractive to people.
(You can see all the videos at www.hegetsus.com)
In one sense, they are right. Jesus is much more popular than Christians or Christianity. The Hindu civil rights crusader Mahatma Gandhi put it this way decades ago, ” “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
So, one strategy Christians use in their evangelism is to focus on Jesus rather than scripture, church, religion, or such things. This is not a bad idea. It is, after all, the original idea of Christianity, sometimes framed as a question: what do you think about Jesus?
Furthermore, it is at the center of what Jesus said and did, presenting people with the simple invitation, “Follow me.”
But the Super Bowl commercials of “He Gets Us” have stirred up all sorts of complaints.
Last year and again this year, one wing of the Christian movement (what we sometimes call the progressives or liberals, and I count myself in that cohort) observed: “The Jesus portrayed in these commercials is not the Jesus preached and presented by the very people who made and paid for the commercials, the conservatives, the fundamentalists, the evangelicals.”
They are right about this. It has been a puzzlement to many of us. We ask, “Why don’t they act like the Jesus they present in these videos?”
But this year, following the presentation of the foot-washing Jesus, it is conservatives who are complaining. “This is woke religion,” one critic said (in a video I shared on my Facebook page).
Today, I watched the commentary of Christian Nationalist and Trump Promoter Lance Wallnau. He said, “You’ve got a woke Jesus instead of the real Jesus.” By which he means this: Jesus never washed the feet of just anybody (especially sinners and heretics and liberals) and the idea that we should “wash the feet” of everybody as a symbolic act of welcome and kindness, is a distortion of the gospel.
Wallnau continued, “I grieve when I see the resources of the kingdom going to the wrong causes, like this.”
He was referring to the Green family of Holly Lobby fame and fortune whose money is the major source of funding for the He Gets Us campaign.
Then there is this, from my friend George Bullard in a commentary on these things, and here I paraphrase: “Mass marketing strategies are ineffective as an evangelism strategy. Sharing the gospel is personal. It is one-on-one, friend to friend, person to person.”
Here is my take: I like the Jesus of the He Gets Us campaign. It reflects the Jesus of the four gospels (and not the Jesus of the book of Revelation). I applaud the designers and funders for using mass media to tell the gospel story of Jesus. We live in a digital, visual age, and many of us get most of our information and inspiration in these ways. I hope these videos inspire all of us to be humble, to attend to the needs of those around us, and to (on occasion) even to “wash the feet of the saints” (a practice encouraged by Paul the apostle in his letter to Timothy—1 Timothy 5:10).
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