Finding Common Ground in Faith Amidst a Divisive Advertisement

When a Super Bowl ad featuring Jesus sparked a firestorm of commentary, I found my friends and community deeply divided. The depiction of Christ washing the feet of marginalized individuals became a catalyst for reflection on servanthood and the true teachings of Jesus—a conversation I knew we needed to have. We begin by navigating through the fervor the commercial provoked, addressing concerns about the financial implications and the controversial decision to portray Jesus alongside members of the LGBTQ community, as well as those at Planned Parenthood. Throughout the discussion, I maintain that the act of Jesus washing his disciples' feet transcends historical context, reminding us of the profound call to serve without judgment.

In a world where quick judgments on social media can overshadow deeper understanding, I take a step back to explore how we can harness such cultural moments to foster genuine conversation about faith. I share insights on love, compassion, and the transformative power of Jesus's teachings, emphasizing that His call to love often requires us to actively engage and form personal connections. The episode doesn't shy away from challenging the modern evangelism landscape, probing the effectiveness of passive media strategies versus the impact of true interpersonal sharing of the Gospel. With a passion for unity among believers, I underscore the necessity of approaching our faith with both humility and a readiness to discuss—using this ad as a springboard for deeper connections and understanding.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:03

Hey, uh, good afternoon, Good morning, good evening.

Speaker 1: 1:08

I guess it just depends on one time you listen to this. Hey, I realize it's been. It's been a minute since I've recorded a podcast that there wasn't a sermon. There's been a lot going on, a lot of exciting things at our church, a lot of exciting things, you know, just in my own personal life, and One of the things that that happened this week and and really the reason for this podcast is, I think, is, you know, if you know me and I was trying to talk through things and I've learned I learned a long time ago and still working on it that you know I try not to respond to things right away, um, especially when it, when it's like things that are on social media or things that are just kind of culturally out there, I try to step back and Give myself enough time to remove myself from a situation so emotionally.

Speaker 1: 2:12

You know, it's kind of a good approach and a Lot of times I think that we can have knee-jerk reactions to things, whether we mean to or not, and I've had to go back and apologize enough in my life that I try hard to do that and, once again, not perfect at it, it's still working. But but the purpose of this podcast is actually just to kind of talk a little bit about Something that I did not think would become so controversial and yet, and at least in my sphere of influence, you know things that are around me that I see there's like this huge dividing conflict and and the conflict stems from the Super Bowl commercial that aired, the one about Jesus washing the feet of people, and the whole ad campaign that you know the Jesus gets us, and then this is something that kind of showed up last year towards the revolve. So it's not new, but for some reason this particular Commercial hit people and in kind of the wrong way or the right way, I guess, paying a look at it. But but the three conversations for conversations that I see happening. Some people are upset that an organization would spend so much money in order to talk about Jesus. I want they could have done so much more with it. Some people are upset that you know Jesus is watching, you know is representing. They're talking about washing the feet of people that you know. I know one of the two, one of the main ones that seemed people will be focused on is the lady was watching the young lady who's at the Planned Parenthood. There's a lot of controversy there, and then you know the response of you know some people just think it's nuts, that we're wasting our time talking about Jesus. You know at all. You know it's Super Bowl commercial. What's the need for it? And then I think there's probably the category that I would fall into is I saw this as an opportunity to maybe start Some bigger conversations with people in my life, right, and so I watch this commercial and in my take on it my personal take on it, as I was actually inspired and I thought, hey, that's that's really cool.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Like once again, here Jesus is kind of being presented to the world on one of the largest stages and In the right. You know he, he washed feet and that he served people, that that was one of his, his primary purposes was to serve people and and so, just to clarify, I do understand the account of Jesus washing his disciples feet. It's a unique situation that happened. He used it to talk about leadership, he used it to talk about servant hood. He was really good at modeling, right. So the the story in of itself is, if you understand the context of it, it is within this room full of his followers, and Even Judas would would go on to betray him, but but Jesus uses this moment Excuse me, it's a model. You know what true servant hood looks like, right, and and how that you know they're supposed to make themselves less and not to hold it over anyone. And so there's a lot of, there's a lot of incredible leadership Advice there, and I know that I've, a couple months ago, I preached on it and you know we had like a foot washing thing here. It was kind of cool, like I've washed people's feet, I've had my feet washed, like it. It's a neat thing, and and so I do understand that in the context of what's happening, there's this very specific scenario that's unfolding.

Speaker 1: 6:32

However, I do think that that concept of washing and serving other people is something that is seen as a universal idea, not just within the context of what's happening, but Jesus is establishing this idea that we should serve people, we should desire to serve those around us. And so here's where the controversy lies, or what appears to be controversial. Jesus is portrayed in this commercial as washing the feet of people who are quote unquote living in sinful lives, right, so that's what some of the representation is, and once again, this is going back to just some things. I've noticed that people were talking about the woman who's in front of Planned Parenthood, that why would you wash the feet of someone who just clearly destroying human life? Or, towards the end of it, there's a priest who's washing the feet of someone who I'm assuming is part of the LGBTQ community, just based on the image and that could be reading something into it.

Speaker 1: 7:49

But there's a lot of people that were really up in arms about the idea that why is Jesus being portrayed as washing the feet of people who are living in sin? And I guess my short answer to that is because he did. I mean listen. The early disciples, including Judas, were still sinful people. Yes, they were under his leadership and they would become some of the greatest people to lead the church, minus Judas who would betray him, but they were still sinful, right, they were still living in sin.

Speaker 1: 8:36

So for Jesus to model the idea of showing love and compassion and serving those who are in sin is not an uncommon characteristic of Jesus. I mean he died on the cross with the intention of dying for people who are still yet in sin. I mean he says it, you know, as he dies, that God, forgive them, father. Forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. Right? So his love and compassion isn't just for those that have it figured out, it's for those that haven't, and there's a lot to unpack there. I'm not going to sit here, and what I don't want is I don't want anyone to sit here and think that I have it all figured out, because I don't. I'm still learning, I'm still growing, I still wrestle with things, but the idea that Jesus would spend time serving people who are living in sin is not uncharacteristic of him, right?

Speaker 1: 9:42

So the second part of this conversation is you know, a lot of people are like well, we're not really sharing the full gospel because, you know, jesus didn't just wash the feet of sinners. He called them to change and be transformed, and to which I would say, yeah, I agree. Listen, part of following Jesus is there's some hard truth that exists there. There's things in our life that he calls us to give up. There's things that he calls, you know, sin. What it is that he wants us to separate us from it. We see this with, you know, the woman called an adultery. You know Jesus tells her after she's been spared Listen, don't go and sin no more right. So there is this call of transformation, and that's important. You can't offer Jesus truly, you can't offer grace, without some kind of expectation of repentance and transformation, because when you have a genuine encounter with the grace that God is offering through Christ, repentance and transformation comes with it. There's this desire to be different, to work on myself, to overcome these things. And so, yeah, I would agree that the entire message of the Gospel, the importance of repentance, is not fully on display, but it's a 30-second commercial.

Speaker 1: 11:25

I don't expect it to be. I mean, think about it. It took around three years of Jesus spending time with his disciples about three years to help them even start to grasp what it is he was calling them to do. You know, genuine transformation takes time. Genuine discipleship takes time. We know this. As Christians, we know this that the idea is to watch our lives be changed and this will be something that will happen for the rest of our lives. It doesn't happen overnight. We're like kids. Man, I've got three young kids and I can tell you that they're constantly going through transformation as they mature and they grow up, and they'll be doing that forever, and so I don't expect a 30 second Super Bowl ad to fully share in the gospel and to spread the entire message, in the same way that this 20 to 30 minute podcast is just touching the.

Speaker 1: 12:39

You know the tip of the iceberg of how big this conversation is. It's a Super Bowl commercial. And then the other part of it is you know, people were talking about how it, they took it personal, it's Christians and they're bashing Christians and they're against them and it's you know, it's probably some leftist, whatever group, trying. And I can tell you that, while I don't have all the information, I had the privilege of, a year ago, meaning one of the gentlemen who was on the board that actually was part of the churches that came up with these ad campaigns, and I can tell you that in the short conversations I've had with him, the goal was to inspire people to have a deeper conversation about faith, right? So these 30 second commercials are designed for the purpose of getting people that may or may not be engaged in the church or may or may not be engaged with Jesus, giving them an opportunity to maybe start that conversation. So, once again, it's a 30 second Super Bowl commercial. It's not going to share the fullness of the gospel. That's where you and I come in right.

Speaker 1: 14:19

I think one of the frustrations with people who are taking it personal is, I think, part of its cultural. I think we we feel like we're being really oppressed and persecuted as Christians and listen, I'm not saying we aren't to an extent, but but the truth is is it's not as bad as we think it is, especially in comparison to other countries, but I think a bigger part of it is is, at least in this country we have a very passive, aggressive way of evangelizing, right? So you know I'm a 90s kid, born in 86, you know. So I grew up, or you know, 90s, early 2000s.

Speaker 1: 15:06

I remember student ministry with the early church and we had all those t-shirts that were like logos from popular companies and they had some kind of weird quips saying on them about how, like you know, I think the Mountain Dew one was like do faith or something like that. But but I remember like growing up and being, you know, I didn't start going to church till I was 15, but just going to these youth conventions and seeing all these things and and the WW JD bracelets and we like we wore this stuff and and really we're just like, yeah, maybe this shirt will like, bring someone to Jesus, and and and it didn't, by the way, at least not in my experience and but the you know. Going back to what I said, I think we have this kind of passive, aggressive way of evangelism is, we want people to know Jesus, right, so we bring the church and we hope that our preacher will teach them. We wear shirts, we post tick-tock videos by the way, everyone on tick-tock is like a biblical expert, like all the time, which, once again, I I'm not trying to sit here and say that I am, because I'm not I've studied a lot. That's what I want the school for, but but it's an ever-learning process. Right, it's, it's an ever-growing process, but, but I digress.

Speaker 1: 16:34

But the idea is, is we have this passive, aggressive mentality that that were upset because the full gospel wasn't shared in a 30 second through ball commercial? But I think it's crazy that we expect it to be that you know, all of a sudden, you want someone to watch a 30 second commercial and just convert and give their life to Jesus. That that's not the purpose. The purpose is that to start a bigger conversation with people. You know that that's what Jesus did really well is he loved people where they were right that that's what he did when he had the crowds that were following him, the 5,000 plus, the 4,000 plus. He was surrounding all these people. He was meeting their needs, he was meeting them where they were and then, through his relationship with them, through the conversations, he challenged them to be better, to be transformed.

Speaker 1: 17:42

But but he understood that it took time and it didn't always work. I mean, judas is an example of that. I mean, you spend three years with Jesus seeing that all they did and and you still crucify the guy. You're the one that leads him to that moment. Right, and so Jesus understood that you got to meet people where they are and you have to love them and and try to at least understand them.

Speaker 1: 18:09

And and what's crazy to me is there's on both sides of this controversy, there's such a lack of understanding. You have people who have gone all over social media, tick-tock and saying how you know they're attacking Christians and they're trying to get us and and they're presenting like a water down Jesus and and and you know they're not really talking about the importance of transformation and once again I go back to yeah, it's a 30 second commercial. The transformation that we expect from people comes from them becoming part of a community of faith of believers who can disciple them right and and we can walk this road together and and we can learn to help them. But but in order to get them here, we have to show them that we'd love them. And and people say you know well, if you really love someone, you tell them the truth. Listen, I, I don't disagree with that. But you don't always lead with the truth though, right, sometimes you, you love people where they are, you try to help them and then you look for that opportunity to say, hey, listen, I think this is something you need to work on. That that's relationship. Relationships take time. Relationships take, you know, they have to be developed, they have to be created, excuse me so.

Speaker 1: 19:43

So when we're looking at this commercial, my response to that that commercial is listen. I. I hope that I can, and I pray that I can find people in my life who have watched this commercial and maybe it sparked something in there. Maybe it sparked a conversation. Maybe it's planted a seed that will lead to a much bigger conversation than I'm supposed to be a part of. Maybe this commercial is gonna lead to someone who I know and love finally asking me more about this Jesus that I know about. I'm not expecting a Super Bowl commercial to do what I'm supposed to do, and that's to go in and come alongside people, live life together, help them, find out who Jesus has helped, show them and, I think, a lot of the reason.

Speaker 1: 20:52

I think another reason this commercial offended so many people is because it highlighted the fact that I don't think we do a good job of loving people that are not like us. You know, we wanna bash and love, tell people truth and we wanna condemn their actions. And once again, I'm not disagreeing with the notion that you have to call sin sin right. We can't change that. We can't. You know that's what makes Jesus so tough. That's also the reason why he went from thousands of followers to 12 and they crucified him, because he called him to be different. He called them to give up certain things.

Speaker 1: 21:43

But those conversations come in time and this is meant to be a process that you and I are supposed to be part of. Not the commercial's not gonna give them everything they need to know, it's not supposed to. But it challenges us because you see washing and it's interesting, it's not even Jesus, but it's people who are representing him, washing the feet of people who are on the other side of them, right that someone they would consider their enemy. And I think it just. It hits us in a really difficult place because we realize that we're not really good at loving people who aren't like us, because we're so worried about converting them and saving them that we ignore that they're human and that they're still learning, that they're still growing, they're still trying to figure things out and listen. Some people are gonna respond to the things we do and some people aren't, but we don't get to pick and choose. Our job is to love people and to show them love and to show them grace.

Speaker 1: 23:06

And especially if someone's not a Christian, why would we expect them to act like Jesus? Why would we expect them to call sin sin? Why would we expect any of that? Because they don't have what we have. But one of the ways we can get there is by loving them, by washing their feet, by serving them, and Paul talks about it in his missionary journey. He says I become all things for all people, so just so we can reach one.

Speaker 1: 23:42

There was just this idea. That it's not, I do not think, my personal opinion. The commercial to me is not condoning sinful lifestyles, it's not saying that this is okay or acceptable, because if you really are someone who follows Jesus, you know that that's not true. I don't see it that way. I see it as trying to become people that build relationship with those who are outside of faith, in helping and praying for an opportunity to bring them to the knowledge of genuine transformation, of genuine repentance, and instead, what the world has seen is that we'd rather hate on each other than wash the feet of people that we would consider our enemies. You know what? The last couple of days has been overwhelming, because I've seen so many Christians, people that I know, people that I'm friends with, and just to see the different reaction and some of the stuff being said and the hate being spewed, and there's such a lack of understanding, there's such a lack of you know, this side accuses this side of softening Jesus and the other side accuses the other side of being too legalistic.

Speaker 1: 25:35

And I feel like, you know, most of us are right. Here in the middle, we're just trying to figure out how to love people in a way that'll bring them to the transformational work of Jesus Christ, and we see this commercial as an opportunity to maybe start a conversation about that. I'm not expecting a Super Bowl commercial to bring them the fullness of the gospel man. That's just silly. 30 seconds Can't do it. I mean, it's not possible, right? But I do believe that this commercial can start a conversation, that it could bring some people to a deeper sense of questioning what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it really look like to be transformed?

Speaker 1: 26:38

I believe that if we can learn to love people the way that he did, that we're going to find ourselves in more and more situations where we can share our faith, where we do see genuine transformation happen. But what I think the world sees right now is that those of us who call ourselves Christians are eating each other alive. We're fighting amongst ourselves, we're bashing each other, we're saying hateful and hurtful things and listen, you can disagree with me all you want. But the damage that is going to be done by the way we speak to each other on social media, by the videos condemning all of the things that we don't understand and, by the way, most people who are condemning these ads don't really understand who's behind them but the damage that's going to be done by this in-fighting, backbiting, chewing each other up and spinning each other around is going to be far worse than a 30-second commercial that shows people washing the feet of people that we would consider sinners. That's what people are going to remember is how we treated each other and how we chose not to love each other. Long after this commercial fades into the background, people will remember how much hate we had towards each other and they're going to look at that and realize that they don't want to be a part of this, because if those are people who follow Jesus, why would I ever want that?

Speaker 1: 28:56

It's a commercial. Is it perfect? No, are there parts of it that I find difficult? Yeah, of course. Is it convicting? Yeah, I think in more way than one. Is it something we can use to try to start a conversation with those around us about who Jesus is? Absolutely, because that's what it's going to take. It's a seed that's being planted, and we're praying that God will open up a door for us to share our faith with someone to respond. But I think what hurts me more, and I think what weighs on me more, is the way we treated each other. Through all this. They will know that we are His by the way that we love one another, christians. We got to do better. Alright, have a good day.