<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-635 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2.png" alt="How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people?" width="1800" height="384" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2-300x64.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2-1200x256.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2-768x164.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2-1536x328.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-1-2-1400x299.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
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; a man who even forgave his killers while they executed him unjustly — whose life inspired a radical movement that is still impacting the world thousands of years later — how did this man’s story become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people? And how might we all rediscover the promise of the love his story represents? Those are the questions at the heart of He Gets Us. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-637 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3.png" alt="Image of a person with hand in the air for the what is the he gets us movement (agenda) page with the quote: &quot;the more ideologically defensive we become, the more we are willing to sacrifice things like kindness, patience, and the respect and dignity of others for the sake of victory." width="1800" height="1076" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-300x179.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-828x495.png 828w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-768x459.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-1536x918.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-1200x717.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Image1-3-1400x837.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
We’ve done a lot of homework on our culture. We researched how people feel about each other and what they think about Jesus and Christianity. We’ve connected with thousands of people of various faith traditions and those who claim no religion. We spoke to all kinds of people — different backgrounds, religious beliefs, and, yes, political affiliations. And this is what we’ve learned: From politics to sexuality and religion, so many of us feel like our values, beliefs, and identities are under attack by the ideological “others” around us. Many perceive those who differ with them on issues of justice, dignity, and humanity as not just wrong or misguided but also as evil. As enemies. We often see these “others” as close-minded, selfish, hypocritical — and if we’re honest, many of us respond in kind. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-638 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3.png" alt="Image of quote for the he gets us agenda page: &quot;Many have relegated Jesus from the world's greatest love story to just another tactic used to intensify our deep cultural divisions." width="1800" height="725" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3-300x121.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3-1200x483.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3-768x309.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3-1536x619.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-1-3-1400x564.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
The more ideologically defensive we become, the more we are willing to sacrifice things like kindness, patience, and the respect and dignity of others for the sake of victory — the righteous ends justifying the dehumanizing means. And it’s tearing us apart. We experience it in politics, in the workplace, in schools, and even in churches. And at the heart of the conflicts is a fundamental disagreement about what it means to be good. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-636 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3.png" alt="Image for the He gets us movement agenda page that has a quote that says: &quot;Throughout our shared history, Jesus has represented the ultimate good that humankind is capable of aspiring to." width="1800" height="250" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3-300x42.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3-1200x167.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3-768x107.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3-1536x213.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Headline-2-3-1400x194.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
Throughout our shared history, Jesus has represented the ultimate good that humankind is capable of aspiring to. And though some no longer believe in God, most are still compelled by the idea of a person capable of unconditional love for others despite their differences. But many of us simply cannot reconcile the idea of that person with the way our culture experiences religion today. Whether it’s hypocrisy and discrimination in the church, or scandals both real and perceived among religious leaders, or the polarization of our politics, many have relegated Jesus from the world’s greatest love story to just another tactic used to intensify our deep cultural divisions. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-639 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3.png" alt="Quote for the He Gets Us (Jesus) agenda page: &quot;Our Agenda is to rediscover the love story of Jesus Christ. Christians, non-Christians, and everybody in between. All of us." width="1800" height="1200" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-300x200.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-743x495.png 743w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-768x512.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-600x400.png 600w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1200x800.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1400x933.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
How did we get here? And what might we learn from the example of Jesus to help move beyond the  animosity we feel for one another? How can we rediscover the life and teachings of Jesus, the world’s most radical love activist? That is our agenda at He Gets Us: to move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus. Christians, non-Christians, and everybody in between. All of us.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-640 size-full" src="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3.png" alt="Image of a quote for the What is he gets us (agenda) page that says: &quot;we look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and the themes from his life." width="1800" height="725" srcset="https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3.png 1800w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3-300x121.png 300w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3-1200x483.png 1200w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3-768x309.png 768w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3-1536x619.png 1536w, https://content.hegetsus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-3-3-1400x564.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />
He Gets Us is a diverse group of Jesus followers with a wide variety of faith journeys and lived experiences. 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. If you’d like to join us, you’re invited. Below you’ll find several resources to explore the story of Jesus for yourself.

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He Gets Us has an agenda.

Our hope is that you see how Jesus experienced challenges and emotions just like we have. We want to provide a safe place to ask questions, including the tough ones.

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We were thinking about what Jesus’ relationships with friends and family might have looked like and were surprised by what we found. Pastel paintings and imagery of Jesus so often depict him having a peaceful, wonderful time with his loved ones, but a closer look at the text paints a more complex picture.

Shortly after beginning his public ministry, Jesus went back to his hometown to share his message. A whole crowd gathered to hear him speak. By the time he was done speaking, they were calling to have him killed. They even tried to take matters into their own hands and throw him off a cliff. If we read this story too quickly, we might miss the fact that the very people trying to kill him grew up with him. They would have been friends and neighbors that knew Jesus when he was a boy. And that’s not the only example of good relationships gone sour. One of Jesus’ closest friends gave him up to the authorities in exchange for money, and another denied ever knowing him while he was being arrested. His family doubted him, and his own mother likely felt the relational strains that came part and parcel of a full-time traveling ministry.



The point is, Jesus’ relationships were far from perfect. Betrayal, doubt, insecurity, disagreement and distance muddied the waters even for Jesus. He couldn’t avoid relational stresses, but he did give us a model for how to respond to them and work toward restoration. His model? Radical patience and forgiveness.



It might have been best illustrated in a story he told about a father and son. The son asked for his inheritance while the father was still alive—he valued the money more than the relationship. The father obliged, gave the money, and the son went off and spent it until he found himself completely destitute with nothing left. He resolved to return home to his father to humbly ask for a job—not to reclaim his spot as son, but as one of many hired hands. As he was walking up to the house, the father saw him from afar and ran out to embrace him. To forgive him. To welcome him home as a son.


Repairing broken relationships is incredibly difficult, and the forgiveness Jesus both talked about and displayed is often messy and complicated. But know if you feel the pang of hurt in your relationships, Jesus did too, and take encouragement in his resolve to repair what was broken.

**If you are in an abusive relationship, please seek help. Jesus’ call to forgive should not be wrongly used to manipulate people into staying in abusive relationships. Seek out safety first.

Jesus had strained relationships, too.

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When it comes to family, there’s an interesting continuity that nestles itself into every family dynamic on the planet, no matter the cultural background — at some point and on some level, they’re going to be dysfunctional. Of course, the degree of dysfunctionality varies, but it’s always there, rearing its head around the holiday dinner table and even at larger gatherings like weddings or reunions.

What boggles the mind even further is the fact that this dysfunctionality has always been present throughout the course of our history on this planet, and nobody is exempt from it, not even Jesus. He had a family who loved him but also attempted to undermine him. There is a moment in the Scriptures where Jesus was speaking to a large crowd, making claims that probably made his family uncomfortable. Be it the scale of his ministry or the direction of it, his family did not approve. Once they caught wind of what he was saying to the crowd, they tried to quiet him and pull him away from the crowd by asserting that he had lost his mind. Jesus responded by declaring that his purpose and devotion to God came before his family.

Imagine being so passionate about your ideas that you want to share them with others, only to have your family shoot them down and call you crazy in a public setting for hundreds to see. Perhaps you don’t have to imagine because you know what it feels like when family doesn’t believe in your direction in life or attempts to cut your dreams down at the ankles. Ring any bells? Unfortunately, family dysfunction is something most of us know a little too well, or at least more than we’d care to admit.

This was a singular instance, but Jesus behaved boldly and held radical ideas, and it’s likely that he had other moments of contention with his immediate family because of this, but there’s another consideration to keep in mind — his lineage. If you look at the genealogy of Jesus, you’ll see he came from a mixed bag. His oldest known relative, Abraham, was a peaceful immigrant who set forth on a dangerous journey to establish a new nation. Noble, right?

Sure, but one of his great-grandmothers disguised herself as a sex worker and tricked her father-in-law into impregnating her. He also had a great-grandfather who abused his power as king to send a man into battle to be killed because he lusted after his wife. There are words to describe their character, too, but noble doesn’t quite come to mind. It is likely that the stories of Jesus’ ancestors were shared with him, and he was well aware of the checkered background from which he came.

Maybe Jesus had such a large capacity for grace for other people because he came from a dysfunctional family, too. One that doubted him, dismissed him, and had reason to cause him shame, but he didn’t resent them for it. We can’t choose our families, but like Jesus, we can choose to stand firm in our purpose and lead with love. No matter how messy your family situation is, know that you aren’t alone, and you, too, can find healthy ways to deal with the mud.

Was Jesus’ family perfect?

21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Mark 3:21

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, 15 Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

Matthew 1:2-16

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