“Brand Jesus”

$1 billion campaign from group ‘linked to staunchly conservative causes’ will try to ‘redeem Jesus’ brand’ in Super Bowl ads https://t.co/MIpDIGH5o5

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 30, 2023

I’ve seen some of these ads, with the tagline: “Jesus gets us.” Not terribly impressive, or carrying much of a message.

What’s eye-popping here is the expense of running ads during the Super Bowl. Per the article, critics of the ad buy ask:WWJD? Fair enough.

I’m guessing Jesus would want that money spent on people. It is easier to spend money on abstract goals like the “desire to see the Jesus of the Bible represented in today’s culture with the same relevance and impact He had 2000 years ago.” Which is doubly ironic, since the impact Jesus had 2000 years ago was limited to 12 men and Paul of Tarsus, and starting about 30 years after his death, the communities that created the canonical gospels. The only record we have of those communities now is the four gospels.The actual impact was felt in 312 CE, when Constantine I converted to Christianity, and brought the entire Roman Empire with him. It was at that point Christianity moved to the center of the world.

A Super Bowl ad is not going to replicate that history.

But more to the point: is the purpose of Christianity evangelism, or is it service to others? Arguably, despite the so-called “Great Commission” of Matthew, the weight of the gospel teachings are that we are our brothers and sisters keepers; or at least, their welfare should be our concern.  Their material welfare, not just their spiritual welfare.

It is much easier to fund an ad campaign than to organize help for people. People are messy, complicated, and refuse to be just what we want them to be. Ask any parent: after learning to live with your spouse, it’s the great lesson of parenthood: your children are people, too. Dorothy Day understood you have to live with people in order to justly serve them, because you have to respect them as people, flesh and bone rather than abstractions. The incarnation of God as ptochoi, the poorest of the poor, made the same point. Even the Creator has to approach people where they are, and serve them in order to teach us the importance of service.

It is such a hard concrete lesson we have heaped layers and layers and layers of abstractions on top of it, the better to avoid the reality. More fool us.