If you happen to watch the Super Bowl this evening, you will see two commercials, one during each half, with the tagline “He Gets Us”. The “He” the commercials refer to is Jesus. On the surface, this appears to be a positive thing. But don’t be fooled. “He Gets Us” is a movement that has spent close to $1 billion over the last few years running ads which are distorting the life and teaching of Jesus. This movement wants us to see Jesus as a man, and not Jesus, the savior, the Messiah. They never refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ; it’s always only Jesus. They are taking the Christ out of Jesus. There is no mention of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for ours sins and for our salvation. They have secularized Jesus, stripped him of his divinity, and are using him to push their earthly agenda.
On their website, they describe Jesus as, “This shocking and even revolutionary figure — who challenged the status quo of his time, who spoke out against the religious and political leaders of his day, who advocated for the marginalized and oppressed, but who always, always, always loved others despite their identity, beliefs, or values. Jesus showed us the path to human flourishing and fulfillment was to love others as oneself, even if it costs you your life.” They carefully insert their politicized language into their description of Jesus, using words like, “revolutionary”, “marginalized”, “oppressed”, and “identity”. This is language straight out of Marxism. And like the devil and all good Marxists, they know how to effectively mix the truth in with their lies.
This movement is not interested in spreading the true message of Jesus Christ to the world; it is hijacking his teaching for their own purposes. Their websites states that “We look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and themes from his life.” That “new relevance” is their way of exploiting Jesus to support their ideology.
The undercurrent to all their videos is the diversity, equity, inclusion, globalist agenda. They have commercials, “Jesus was a refugee”, “How did Jesus deal with injustice”, “Jesus the influencer”, “Jesus loved people we hate”, “Jesus was radically inclusive”. They align Jesus with their side of the political debate, trying to lead us to conclude that if Jesus was a refugee, then we must allow millions illegal immigrants to pour into our country every year; if Jesus was an influencer and dealt with injustice, then we must support the BLM movement which rioted and burned our cities; if Jesus loved everybody and was radically inclusive, then we must support the teaching of radical gender ideology in schools, and approve of every deviant lifestyle that anybody engages in.
These people don’t care about Jesus. They are exploiting him to promote their Marxist agenda. Time and again, Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world. He was not about solving the problems and injustices here on earth. His mission on earth was to provide a pathway to salvation for everyone after we have left earth. The Marxists believe the exact opposite. They believe that they can create heaven here on earth, and they are trying to do so by appropriating Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus was not about getting the entire world to sit in a circle holding hands singing Kumbaya. Jesus’ challenge to “love your enemies” is to prepare our souls to get in alignment with God who loves each and every one of us even though we are sinners and defy his will daily. Loving our enemies was not necessarily meant to bring some sort of harmony here on earth, it was to get us in harmony with God, to show us how to love the way God loves.
Their name itself, “He Gets Us”, has it completely backwards. The question is not, does he get us? The question is, do we get him? Do we understand him? Do we understand his sacrifice? Have we turned our will over to him? “He Gets Us” promotes the false belief that Jesus validates us in all that we do. Does Jesus get us when he said, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than have two hands to go to hell.” [Mark 9:44] He doesn’t validate everything we do. He loves us. He forgives us. But we are all still sinners, saved solely by the grace of God. So, he doesn’t get us, he saved us.
But this is how the Marxists work. Instead of trying to win people over by convincing them with their ideas, they infiltrate institutions and pervert the already accepted ideas into their radical Marxist ideology. We have seen this in education where Radical Gender Ideology is taught under the guise of sex education, and Critical Race Theory is disguised as teaching history. The mainstream media has been so infiltrated by the radical left that it now proclaims that censorship protects democracy and freedom of speech is an existential threat. The entertainment industry no longer produces artistic storylines and content about the human condition, it merely spews left-wing propaganda.
The financial sector is now promoting ESG investments which means only investing in companies that are aligned with the Marxist agenda. Professional sports are putting left-wing slogans on playing fields, courts, jerseys and helmets. Teams are sponsoring special nights promoting the LGBTQ lifestyles and woke causes. The Marxists have infiltrated and perverted all of our other societal institutions so it was inevitable that they would eventually come after our religious institutions and figures.
At the same time the Marxists are diminishing Jesus, they are elevating man. Earlier this week, Nike posted a video on Instagram celebrating LeBron James breaking the NBA All-time scoring record, called “Witness”. The black and white video shows highlights from James’ career to music with a preacher in the background mimicking a call to witness for God at a revival meeting. The preacher proclaims:
In the movie, Hoosiers, schoolteacher, Myra Fleener tells coach Norman Dale that, “Gods come pretty cheap nowadays, don’t they? I mean, you become one by putting a leather ball through an iron hoop.”
The only reason why anyone would consider the self-proclaimed “King James” a god is because he can perform that insignificant feat of putting a leather ball through a metal hoop. That’s it. He’s a basketball player. He is not a god. He’s a fallible, corruptible man. Can we get a witness to the fact that Nike produces many of its shoes and apparel in sweatshops in China using forced and child labor, and both Nike and LeBron James have made hundreds of millions of dollars off of this slavery. Should that be exalted? Should that be testified to? Is that God-like?
We are living in a society that is humanizing God and deifying man. That’s exactly what the Marxists want to have happen. They want man to replace God so they can become the ultimate ruler over mankind, so they can establish their idea of heaven here on earth which always turns into a living hell.
This evening, as you watch a bunch of grown men running, catching, blocking and tackling, never forget, regardless of the gushing praise the announcers will lavish on the players, these are just flesh and blood human beings, no different than you and I, except that God made them a little bigger, a little stronger and a little faster. That’s it. And eventually their size, speed and strength will wither into dust, and with it their worldly deification. And the only one who will remain, is the one only one who has ever conquered death, Jesus Christ. Can I get a witness to that?
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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.
