He Gets Us?

There has been quite a buzz about the "He Gets Us" ads that have been building up and were shown during the Super Bowl. They are well done and grab your attention. I am hopeful that many people will dig into their Bibles and discover the thrill it is to know Christ and have faith in Him. You can view their ads on their website here. Charitably, there is only so much you can say in a few 1-minute advertisements. You want to make your point and get people interested in what you are trying to say.

What irks me about the ads is what irks me about most advertising. It’s intentionally deceptive. Pharmaceutical commercials are notorious for this: look at the person smiling and living a normal life; look how happy this drug makes them; look how they can live as if their pre-existing condition no longer exists. What a good deal! Then, in the last five seconds the narrator speed reads a dozen negative side-effects and you are left wondering, "is this really a good deal?" Why cram all that in the end? Why put fine print on the back of the box? 

They do it because if they were honest about the product, giving the pros and cons side by side without any manipulation, their product would not sell nearly as well. It's the same reason lawmakers hide millions of dollars of spending in a 700-page bill. The honest truth rarely sells well, so: the hard edges need be shaved, and small font printed, and speed readers hired--and that only so they do not get a lawsuit!

I am afraid these He Gets Us ads are not much different. In the ads I am intentionally being given a select side of Jesus. It is a nice side, an inclusive side, a bridge building side. We like this version and begin to think, "Why doesn't every one love and accept this Jesus?" What a deal! But then I get the same sick to my stomach feeling I get in other marketing campaigns: that I am not being told the whole story. That there are side-effects and hidden costs. And if you have ever read the things Jesus has said you will know that is true.

Why give a one-sided picture then? I suspect the creators of the ads think if we leave out the uncomfortable things up front maybe the product will sell more; maybe after people discover the goodness of Jesus, they will be able to stomach those parts about repentance, dying to self, coming judgment, atonement for sin. Just get them in the door however you can, and we can deal with all "that" later. Perhaps. But it is just as likely people will feel as they do towards many advertising campaigns today: tricked and duped. Why did you not tell me the hard stuff up front as well? Why did you shout about love and unity but hide the division, the persecution, and the cross? Why did you lie to me? I thought I was following something nice and easy, but the real thing is entirely different. 

And then they will leave. 

It is interesting that Jesus himself was a very bad salesman to seekers. And by very bad, I mean He was brutally honest, in some instances even intentionally putting the hardest side first. 

An example that immediately comes to mind is John 6, one of my favorite passages in Scripture. Jesus gives several hard sayings to the people who are hungering for some more food, after he multiplied bread the day before. The fame of Jesus is through the roof at this point. The miracles are undeniable, the teaching has authority like no man speaks. The crowds are flocking and the energy is pulsating. If we were there we would be telling Jesus to keep it going. "Don't mess it up, think of all these people who will hear you now!"

But Jesus takes a needle to the party and deflates it entirely with several hard sayings. Chief among them are verses 53-54, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you." To the earthly minded masses this sounds like Jesus was quickly becoming a cannibalistic cult, leading ultimately to their reaction in verse 66: "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." These are hard sayings, who can accept them.

Curiously we do not see Jesus clarifying his comments. He does not explain to the crowds that by eating His body he was really describing the spiritual reality of faith. He does not appeal to them to reconsider their decision to leave. His words seem obscure and difficult on purpose. He even in verse 67 asks the question of the twelve: "Will you go too?” --as if He wants them to leave!

Why does He do this? Why run so counter to strategic marketing principles? He does so because Jesus does not want accidental followers. He does not want to bribe people into the kingdom with half-truths and free bread. He desires people who are wholly committed to following Him even in things that are hard to understand. It is not mere quantity, but the quality of follower He is after. He who can persist at the beginning will likely persist through to the end. But those who can’t handle some hard words now, how will they ever continue when the going gets even more difficult?

This does not mean we need to model Jesus’ tactic in every instance. We do not need to be purposefully harsh. Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. But we at minimum need to be honest in our presentations, trusting that Jesus speaks for himself better than any more palatable guise we would adorn Him with.

The great irony is when we try to show select parts of Christianity only or dress it up in a nicer way we are actually making it less attractive, not more. By taking away the difficulties, in the spirit of being appealing, we actually remove the appeal. Who wants to follow a small god who calls you to nothing, who agrees with you on everything, who lets you do what you please? No, it is exactly in the hard words of Christ, the holiness of His person, the undoing of His presence, the confrontation of His teaching--that there is an appeal.

Here in the full and undiluted Christ there is something that demands everything of me, and I don’t know about you, but I want to go all in.