He Regrets Us

“But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord REGRETTED that he had made humankind on the earth…. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I REGRET that I have made them” (Genesis 6:5-7).

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-29).

Yes, the title of this column and the opening passages were to get your attention.

They are to let you know: He gets us.

Once again, during the Superbowl, we had some very ambiguous and wishy-washy (literally “washy”) commercials telling people, “He gets us.”[1] Who gets us? Jesus, of course. The video shows a bunch of artistic renderings, including a cop washing a black man’s feet, a suburban white woman washing the feet of (perhaps) an illegal alien, a priest washing the feet of (what might represent) a gay man, a woman washing the feet of a young girl out front of an abortion clinic while on the side of the building others are holding signs which read, “Save the Unborn” and “Save Life.” The written message then kicks in: “Jesus didn’t teach hate.”

True enough. We do not disagree there. One commentator responded by saying, “The most generous thing I could say about a message like, ‘Jesus didn’t teach hate’ is that it is redundant…. Because everybody already knows that Jesus didn’t teach hate…. Nobody was ever confused about it.”[2] Still, the message might prompt a good discussion of Jesus’ saying, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). It might even prompt us to consider Paul’s words: “Love must be without hypocrisy. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). Those would be good biblical conversations.

Another time perhaps.

The statement “Jesus didn’t teach hate” following on the heels (see what I did there?) of those pictures DOES prompt a few thoughts and questions:

First, they all seem politically one-sided. There were no images of BLM rioters washing the feet of the business owner whose store they were about to burn down, no pictures of illegal immigrants who beat up a cop in New York City washing the feet of a police officer. There are no pictures of a gay man washing the feet of a priest. There is no picture of the mother at the abortion clinic washing the feet of her unborn child. (Granted, that might be hard to draw.)

Second, I expected the ad did not mean we should literally wash each other’s feet but only meant it symbolically, a representation of love. But they, essentially, are holding up foot washing as opposed to something else. They show foot washing at the abortion clinic, in opposition to those holding signs, trying to save babies from being killed in the womb. If the foot washing person is showing love and service then, by contrast, those trying to save the lives of the babies are somehow NOT showing love nor serving others. So, the ad’s contrast is problematic.

The He Gets Us message continues after the pictures, with the words: “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet.” But why did Jesus wash the feet of His friends? When Jesus did things, like heal the blind or the deaf, even raise the dead, it was a demonstration not only that He had the power to do such things, the power over nature for example, but also that He was the One able to open the eyes of the spiritually blind and deaf. He was the One who would raise the spiritually dead to life (John 5:25, Ephesians 2:1-4). When Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, He taught them, saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no share [or no part] with me” (John 13:8). It was not a gesture without context. It was a physical representation of something deeper. Jesus must be the One who washes us clean. The New Testament is filled with this imagery: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 2:17). Remembering the account of Noah mentioned at the opening, Peter tells us that the flood “prefigured baptism… not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21, emphasis added). The baptism prefigured was Jesus’ baptism on the cross (Luke 12:50).

It is important to note: “Jesus didn’t go around washing everyone’s feet…. He wasn’t out in the street washing the feet of every unbeliever and unrepentant sinner who walked by.”[3]

Some have made the case, “He washed Judas’ feet, Judas who betrayed Him; so, it is about washing the feet of your enemies.” One might say that. Of course, Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), which almost all will admit is one of the most difficult things a person can do. In the same sermon, He also said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Should we have a conversation about that?

No one can deny that the disciples were Jesus’ friends, however. And He did show amazing humility and love in that moment. Of course, Jesus also said that very same night, in front of Judas, “It would be better for [the one who betrays me] if he had never been born” (Mark 14:21). Jesus later said, “Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, so that the scripture could be fulfilled” (John 17:12). There is no universal salvation. Eternal hell is a reality taught in the same Bible, in the same Gospels, by the same Jesus who washed the feet of His friends. Where do these folks stand on Jesus’ teaching about hell? If they say, “Well, we don’t really believe that…” or “Well, these things were written down by men and so long after the fact that…” then why would we listen to them, at all, about the foot washing incident? Reading the entire Bible might help everyone out.

But I digress.

The ad continues with their slogan: “He gets us. All of us.”

After all, that is the message of the Bible… isn’t it?

Let’s look at a few passages:

“In those days, John the Baptist came into the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘He gets us!’” That is NOT Matthew 3:2, by the way (unless your church is Unitarian Universalist).

“They went out and preached, ‘He gets us.’” That is NOT Mark 6:12 (unless your church has a rainbow flag flying outside).

“From that point on, Jesus began to preach, ‘I get you.’” That is NOT Matthew 4:17.

Do you see what is missing from the message?

Look the verses up for yourselves.

Perhaps we are just misunderstanding their message. Certainly, that must be it. So, I decided to read their web site. They admitted that the foot washing is only a symbol, but they miss something very important; though they accidentally say it when they tell us Jesus’ action is “a symbol for all of his followers to see how they should treat each other.”[4] His followers. Each other. They point out the fact that Jesus told them to follow His example in John 13:14. But, AFTER Judas was gone, Jesus told them more: “My commandment is this – to love one another [i.e. each other, one’s Christian brothers and sisters][5] just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. [Jesus was about to lay down His life in order to wash them clean. THIS was the larger meaning. Judas’ sins were not washed in this way.] You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:12-14). By the way, He did not only command us to love, but to be holy, and to preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing, and teaching people “to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The He Gets Us folks write, “How would our contentious world change if we washed one another’s feet, not literally, but figuratively?” In this case, they should aim their advertising at the unbelieving world. It is the unbelieving world that hates Christ, hates the Bible, and hates His followers. Jesus said, “The reason the world hates me is because I testify that it is evil” (John 7:7). The world hates biblical morality. Jesus spelled it out plainly: “Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! For from now on there will be five in one household divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). Jesus promised His followers, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (John 15:20). Why is this? Because “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7).”

Christians do not seek the division;[6] truth and falsehood are naturally opposed.

The He Gets Us people seem to think they can build Utopia if everyone loved and served each other. (Jesus will bring the perfect world one day, a new heaven and a new earth with all those He has redeemed by His blood, read Revelation 21:1-8.) Perhaps they should have pictured, the militant LGBT people washing the feet of a Christian holding a Bible or picture a Nigerian Muslim with his machete laid aside, washing the feet of a Nigerian Christian family, or FBI agents washing the feet of the pro-life person whose home they just raided. At the very least they could have pictured Gavin Newsome washing John MacArthur’s feet.

On their “About Us” page, the first line is: “How did the story of Jesus, the world’s greatest love story, get twisted into a tool to judge, harm, and divide? How do we remind people that the story of Jesus belongs to everyone?”[7] They need to define “judge, harm, and divide” for us. Again, Jesus said His message would be divisive. Jesus was also very judgmental. (Have they ever read the Bible?) He called it as He saw it. All of His judgments were right (and His Judgment at the end of history will also be true and right).

The He Gets Us people are like the people (perhaps they are the people) with the “Hate has no home here” signs, where they are defining hate in a certain way; “Hate” to them means not affirming and not approving.[8] It is like the people who say, “Love is love” and then twist the words to mean anything they want it to mean.[9] They certainly do not mean 1 Corinthians, chapter 13: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (verse 6). Do they rejoice in the truth that a baby in the womb is a human being? Do they rejoice in the truth that there are only two sexes/genders? If they answer “no” to either of those, they do not love because they have abandoned the truth.

They write, “Our campaign comprises humble perspectives from a diverse group of Jesus fans[10] and followers with a variety of faith journeys and lived experiences bound by a common desire: to rediscover and share the compelling story of Jesus’ life in a new way.” Apparently, their perspective is humble. Nice. It is always funny when someone tells you they are humble. Their web site also says, “Pride says, ‘I’m right, and you’re wrong.’”[11] Are they so blind that they do not realize their constant drum beat that they are the right ones and there is at least one group of people, somewhere, who is wrong time and time again. Let us call the wrong people “Christians of the conservative and/or evangelical Bible-believing type,” the kind who would stand outside abortion clinics with their hateful signs demonstrating their love for babies.

Their language gives them away: “A variety of faith journeys” is the language of the left, of progressivism, of Unitarian Universalists, not that of well-grounded Christians. They do not seem to believe what Jesus said about the faith journey of most, that it will end in destruction (Matthew 7:13, etc.). Jesus taught about hell more than any other person in the Bible. Christians are trying to rescue others from destruction (Proverbs 24:11, Jude 1:23), just as we have been rescued. The rescue includes hard truths like telling people they are on the wrong path, showing people their lost estate, warning them of their sin and rebellion, telling them there is only one way of rescue through Jesus Christ who died on a cross to pay the ransom for sinners. (But we don’t want to look at that. Just say, “He gets us.”)

“Rediscover and share the compelling story of Jesus’ life”? The word “rediscover” is telling. Many cults, false religions, and false versions of Christianity claim to be “rediscovering” something that was lost. “I am ‘deconstructing’ back to an authentic…” “Charles Taze Russel has rediscovered…” “We have these golden plates given us by an angel to correct…” “Since the Bible had gotten so corrupted, God had to re-inspire…” “A jinn in a cave has shown me the authentic message of God that had been corrupted.”

Don’t believe it.  

They write, “How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love, peace, and kindness; who spent his life defending the poor and the marginalized…. how did this man’s story become associated with hatred and oppression.”[12] First note, they constantly call Jesus a man. (Their site seems to over-emphasize it at the expense of His Deity.) Secondly, who associates Jesus’ name with hate? Certainly, Christians do not. It is the world, those hostile to the teachings of Christ, Christianity, and the Bible as a whole, who associate it with hate. (Their statement seems quite judgmental, even unloving. It seems to me that—and this is just a suggestion—they should find the nearest Bible-believing Christian and wash his or her feet.) Okay, sure, there might be one crazy church out there that preaches hate, but no one takes them seriously.

The pervasive, progressive buzz words and phraseology continue: “…the way our culture experiences religion today…”[13] “…Jesus, the world’s most radical love activist…”[14] “faith journeys and lived experiences.”[15] Normal people do not talk like this, “progressives” do.

They write, “Our work represents the input from Christians who believe that Jesus is the son of God as well as many others who, though not Christians, share a deep admiration for the man that Jesus was, and we are deeply inspired and curious to explore his story. We look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and themes from his life.”[16]

They did not capitalize the word “son” in “Son of God.” (They tip their hand.)

“The man that Jesus WAS.” (Jesus was, is and is to come, Revelation 1:8.)

“Through a modern lens.” (What lens is that? Biblical criticism, cultural relativism, chronological snobbery?)

“New relevance.” (I am reminded of a great line by Os Guinness: “Christians [and churches] need reminding that they will not prove relevant unless they prove orthodox.”)

They claim the work represents input from Christians. What, Christian web designers? Certainly not in the messaging. If so, true Christ-followers should heed the words, “Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

“Do not be partners with them” (Ephesians 5:7).

They write, “Jesus has represented the ultimate good that humankind is capable of aspiring to.”[17]

Is this Mormonism, New Age, Unitarian Universalism again?

I can’t read any more, sorry.

At the very best, they are just trying to get everyone to love one another, in an Elmo kind of way, a love without any correction, a love without the preaching of repentance. No one needs to change—WAIT, HOLD THE PRESSES—those hateful right wing conservative Christians need to change and repent! Forget the rest of the Bible and start washing feet. (I am reminded of the Greg Koukl column entitled “The Legend of the Social Justice Jesus.”)

No, the ads are bad. See them for what they are: Judgmental, woke Leftism co-opting Jesus for their own cause. Apostates and “progressive” Christians may clap and cheer but the wise will tread carefully. There are plenty of wolves in sheep’s clothing, marching lock-step with the unbelieving world with their false teachings and false Christs. Almost every single book of the New Testament warns us about such people (2 Peter 2:17-18, etc.).

Still, there are the Christians who, possibly half asleep, saw the ads and thought, “Wow, that is great. Everyone watching right now is seeing a message about Jesus.” There is a spiritual gift called “discernment of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10) and apparently not every Christian gets that gift, which is sad. No message was given, other than “Jesus washed feet” and then the subtle, “Christians have been using Jesus as a tool for hate, especially conservative, historic, evangelical, Bible-believing Christians.” Nothing else is said about Jesus. The Gospel is not preached and people do not get saved unless someone preaches the Gospel to them (Romans 10:14). The Gospel is noticeably missing from He Gets Us.

A guy I know on social media, who identifies himself as a pagan, saw the ads. Was his heart softened? Was he convicted of his sin and rebellion? Did he drop to his knees in repentance and cry out to Jesus to be saved? How did the ad move him? He posted, “If you pay $100 million for Superbowl ads to convert me to Jesus, instead of housing the homeless, you’re reading the wrong book.” Put aside the false dilemma or false dichotomy fallacy for the time being. This guy was not moved in the least. He was not able to discern that the ad was not from Christians but from a worldview probably not too far from his own. Reminder: The unbeliever hates the real Jesus (the Christ of the entire Bible), it is at enmity towards God, and the message of the cross is foolishness to them (Colossians 1:8). This guy’s response brought the following to mind: “But the evil spirit replied to them, ‘I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?’ Then the man who was possessed by the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them all into submission. He prevailed against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:15-16).

Epic fail.

There have been many Wimpy, Weak, and Woke[18] responses. But there have been some very good ones. Natasha Crain wrote about it when it first began, back in October 2022.[19] She has recently written about it again.[20] Samuel Sey, who I follow on social media, has been responding to it, writing a column here, as well as posting things like, “The He Gets Us ads are what happens when people watch The Chosen instead of reading the Bible.” (Or read The Shack.) Melissa Dougherty did a YouTube response here. Elsewhere, I highly recommend “The Christian Super Bowl Ad They SHOULD Have Made | He Saves Us” on YouTube. One could also watch the Babylon Bee parody reminding us that there is a powerful spiritual being who will affirm everyone exactly as they are, encouraging unbelievers along their path, never warning or demanding any change.

Lastly, I saw one of the more interesting Christian responses on Instagram, posted by @Spare_No_Arrows, who came up with some powerfully alternative images and sayings, for instance: “The culture hated Jesus then, too.” Another one depicted people holding “Got Abortion” and “Abortion is a Human Right” signs, over which we read the words, “Jesus was murdered for convenience, too.”

Now THAT is a counter-cultural ad which gets people’s attention; THAT is a statement.

Each one of @Spare_No_Arrows posts then said, “Repent and Believe.”

He Gets Us has no interest in the true Gospel. Their web-site essentially says that the biblical Jesus, Son of God, doesn’t really matter. His atoning death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, His coming again to judge the living and the dead can be believed or rejected. “Repent and Believe!” are not part of the message.

Yes, Jesus loves. Jesus is God incarnate and God is love (John 1:1, Philippians 2:6, 1 John 1:8, etc.); therefore, everything He said and did would have been loving in some way. The following pronouncements would also have to have been loving: He said that anyone who harms a little child, it would be better for a millstone to be tied around their neck and tossed into the sea (Luke 17:2).[21] He told sinners to “Go and sin no more” (John 5:14 and 8:11). He physically threw people out of the Temple, using a whip (John 2:15). And it was Jesus who said He would cast the wicked and the unbelieving into hell at the Final Judgment (Matthew 25:41, etc.). Have they read the book of Revelation? Do they see what Jesus says and does there? (I expect that does not fit their agenda.)

There is no half-way Jesus. But they want Jesus the man and not Jesus, Son of God, Judge of the Earth. Half-way Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. Yes, true, He really does “get us,” but not the way the progressives are saying: “Unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5). He DOES get us: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire” (John 8:44). He DOES get us: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

He really DOES get us:

“Whoever believes… is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

REPENT AND BELIEVE!

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[1] See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94BqlDQ-Ppo

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U4cw4vm_00

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U4cw4vm_00

[4] https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/what-is-foot-washing-and-what-does-it-symbolize (emphasis added)

[5] So many people make some of Jesus’ teachings universal and generic. When Jesus taught about feeding others or clothing them or visiting them in prison, to whom was He directly referring? “The least of these my BROTHERS” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus reveals who His “mother and brothers” actually are in Mark 3:31-35. Lastly, note that in Jesus’ High Priestly prayer to His Father on the night He was betrayed, He specifically prays for His own, His followers, NOT everyone (John 17:9).

[6] Yes, of course, some stupid people do.

[7] https://hegetsus.com/en/about-us

[8] Let us see how much they love, when a person wearing a MAGA hat and holding a clipboard knocks on their door or a person who seeks to end abortion knocks on their door, or someone uses the “wrong” pronoun of a strange looking college student.  

[9] “Love is love,” except, even though they have erased all the lines so as to convenience themselves, they still redraw the lines to exclude the incestuous and others. But they will continue pushing, as there are some who actually now call pedophiles “Minor Attracted Persons.” After all, if you are “born that way” no one can say it is wrong and you cannot change or be held accountable for your behaviors.

[10] I suggest reading the book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman.

[11] https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/what-is-foot-washing-and-what-does-it-symbolize

[12] https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/he-gets-us-has-an-agenda

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] I highly recommend John Cooper’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Wimpy-Weak-Woke-John-Cooper/dp/B0CMYXVWGM/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=dluqA&content-id=amzn1.sym.d0ebfbb2-6761-494f-8e2f-95743b37c35c%3Aamzn1.symc.50e00d6c-ec8b-42ef-bb15-298531ab4497&pf_rd_p=d0ebfbb2-6761-494f-8e2f-95743b37c35c&pf_rd_r=JSADFRR7BBCH3FDC64GH&pd_rd_wg=fu1ch&pd_rd_r=055d9130-3531-4d85-b048-7fcb98fd922d&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

[19] https://natashacrain.com/7-problems-with-the-he-gets-us-campaign/

[20] https://natashacrain.com/here-comes-the-he-gets-us-campaign-again-why-its-portrayal-of-jesus-is-still-a-problem/

[21] There was even a “meme” with a drawing of a man with a millstone tied around his neck heading to the bottom of the sea and the caption “He gets us” going around after these ads.