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Relationships

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.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-873" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/RelationshipsHeadlines-01.png" alt="" width="3750" height="261" />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.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-935" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Quote-2-4.png" alt="" width="1800" height="1200" />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.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-874" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/RelationshipsHeadlines-02.png" alt="" width="3750" height="521" />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.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-877" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/RelationshipsQuote3.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2443" />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.
Scripture References: Luke 4:14-30, Luke 22:1-6, Matthew 26:69-75, Mark 3:21, Luke 15:11-32

Jesus had strained relationships, too.

The idea for this video came to us in November 2021, when most of us felt lonelier than ever before. We were living through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, trapped in our homes to keep each other safe. Many of us went months without seeing our closest friends and loved ones, and we weren’t sure when the separation would end.
We wondered if Jesus had ever experienced such loneliness. As a man who traveled the world gathering fame and followers, he knew how it felt to be surrounded by loving company. But like us, he knew how it felt to lose that love without warning.
During his lifetime, Jesus watched thousands of his followers walk away. When he was being prosecuted unjustly, his closest friends abandoned him out of fear. As he awaited execution, he stood alone. And in his darkest moment, as he died on the cross, Jesus felt abandoned.
As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, the impact of isolation lingers. We feel it. We see it in our families, co-workers, and friends. But we’ve found comfort in Jesus’ loneliness. It reminds us that even in isolation, we’re not alone.
<h2>Scripture References: John 6:60-71, Matthew 26:69-75 </h2>

Was Jesus ever lonely?

Is it really possible to invite everyone to a party? Space and finances aside, it seems like a tall order — especially since it can be hard to include your own family during preordained holidays. Family dynamics are a real thing. For some, it can mean playing a competitive football game in the yard after Thanksgiving dinner. For others, it means suffering through the quiet (or loud) tension stretching across the table or mourning estrangement and loss that has resulted in empty seats.
It may be hard to imagine Jesus struggling through such things, especially since he was known for his welcoming message. He told stories of huge banquets to which, yes, everyone was invited (though not everyone attended). He encouraged anyone who heard his teachings to take a break with him, to walk beside him, and to find security with him during hard times. He was a man on a mission to have everyone join him in whatever he was doing … including dinner.
This brings us to the dinner events that Jesus attended, many of which should sound familiar. Like us, his family and friends were drawn together by food and yearly celebrations. There were times when they reclined at the table to enjoy each other’s company. And there were times when the meal was not enough to bridge the divide. Like us, Jesus had to contend with difficult personal relationships, political and religious beefs, and even lesser things like bickering over who was doing all the work for the day’s festivities.
It would seem Jesus experienced it all. He dined with those who openly challenged him while they ate. He broke bread with a man he knew would betray him. He invited himself over to eat, much to people’s dismay. He attended a party with the upper crust and watched as they jockeyed for the best seat. He even tried to celebrate a holiday with friends, only to have his family crash the event and disrupt it because they wanted him to tone his mission down … it was drawing way too much attention for their tastes.
Yet, Jesus was not deterred. He was intent on bringing people together for an enormous feast — which meant during the smaller ones, he was careful and purposeful with his words. He refrained from arguing, instead discussing differences with patience, understanding, and genuine curiosity. And he rarely declined an invitation. In the end, there was always someone who left changed because Jesus went beyond simply eating beside them. He broke bread with them, knowing that was the key.
During one of Jesus’s final meals here on Earth, he journeyed with a man named Cleopas, whose politics kept them from completely understanding each other, even after spending the entire trip discussing things. After a full day of traveling, they still had not made many inroads with each other — not until they sat down to share a meal. It was then, in the breaking of bread, that they came to really know the other. There was something special in that shared meal … and perhaps we can all draw from it.
During the many seasons of the year, from New Year’s Day to Christmas, there’s an opportunity to embrace more guests at our tables, to rebuild relationships, and to share something beyond the food. With family and friend dynamics, it takes work to make it work, but if we’re willing to wade into dinner parties as Jesus did, we may find that a meal can feed the soul — and in turn, make us want to invite everyone to the party. Truly.
Great Feast Parable during dinner with Pharisees: Luke 14:1-24 
The last supper: Luke 22:14-38 
Road to Eumaeus: Luke 24:13-35

Jesus was no stranger to difficult dinner conversations.

Hope

Jesus is often shrouded in misconception. He certainly was in his day and even more so now. There’s a tendency for some to think of him as a historical figure of the past whose sole mode of expression was stoicism. For others, it’s tempting to imagine him as some long-haired, hippy who spent the majority of his days hugging and loving everyone.
Neither of those pictures paints an entirely accurate representation of who Jesus was. Truth is, Jesus felt. Like you and I, he experienced a range of emotions. The good and the ugly. This is why He Gets Us. Scroll for a deeper dive into how Jesus experienced emotions below.

Jesus Experienced Every Human Emotion

Jesus saw beauty in others even when they couldn’t see it in themselves. This is why he chose people who were deemed uneducated, illiterate and troubled to spread his message of radical love. Jesus saw potential in them that wasn’t obvious on the surface. He looked deeper and saw that his chosen were like mounds of clay that could be sculpted, with love and patience, into fine works of art.

Jesus valued potential, not perfection.

We were looking at the life of Jesus to see who he really was, and we noticed something peculiar: he spent a lot of time around the dinner table. Many of his most frequently quoted messages and standout stories happened while sharing a meal with others. As we looked closer, we noticed that his company around the table was a remarkably diverse cast. He shared meals with outcasts. He spent time with the self-righteous religious elite. He cared for people who had broken every rule and were seen as unclean. He dined at the tables of the wealthy men whose riches were won with lies and corruption. Some of those men gave up comfortable lifestyles to follow him. He crossed racial boundaries to the shock of many around him. He invited everyone to the table. When asked why he did so, he replied, “… I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.&#8221;
It was radical at the time. No one was that inclusive. The religious do-gooders began to whisper behind his back. They called him a friend of sinners. It was supposed to be an insult, but Jesus wore it proudly. He was a friend to everyone. And what do friends do? They eat dinner together and share in each other’s lives.
Strangers eating together and becoming friends. What a simple concept, and yet, we’re pretty sure it would turn our own modern world upside down the same way Jesus turned his around 2,000 years ago. That’s really why we made this video in the first place. We see division and broken relationships everywhere. We see judgment and hypocrisy on the rise. We see people who claim to be followers of Jesus taking his open invite and turning it into an exclusive club.
The name of Jesus has been used to harm and divide, but if you look at how he lived, you see how backward that really is. Jesus was not exclusive. He was radically inclusive. What would our world look like if that were the norm? If strangers became friends over the dinner table as they did around Jesus?

Jesus invited everyone to sit at his table

Activist

Back in Jesus’ time, a respectable Jewish teacher wouldn’t dare consider taking a female student under his instruction. He would also not engage with someone who had a chronic illness or disability, since it was believed to be a testament of poor character and lineage. And never mind having dealings across the ethnic and political barriers that existed then. That, too, was a no-no.
Yet, Jesus—who, as a religious Jewish teacher, had these expectations tenfold—didn’t follow any of these rules. In fact, he went out of his way to break them.
Though there are still places today where women, ethnicities, and people with disabilities are openly excluded from society, it may be hard to fully understand how shocking Jesus’ behavior was when, for instance, he comforted a woman because she suffered from years of constant blood flow — a disorder that was considered unclean. Or when, without hesitation, he associated himself with a man sick with leprosy, and another with blindness, and yet another who was paralyzed. Or how about when he engaged in a deep conversation in broad daylight with a woman who came from a people that many likened to dogs, and then went on to visit a Roman man’s home to tend to the sick there.
Jesus sought to include everyone in his ministry, giving them a place to belong by treating all with value and respect. This meant he crossed the line countless times. One of the more notable instances happened when he befriended a woman who was widely considered to be demon-possessed. Even today, we can imagine how this might’ve gotten tongues wagging. But because of Jesus’ compassion, this woman would go on to find her health and become one of the most influential people associated with him. Her name was Mary Magdalene, and the fact that we know about her over two-thousand years later is a testament to the barriers Jesus successfully erased by simply ignoring them.
Today, Jesus’ legacy continues to challenge us to be inclusive in a real way, to reach past people’s physical and mental struggles, gender, and ethnicity so that we may really see them. And once we do, we might just find—much like those who knew Mary Magdalene in her time—that the people who are considered the least of us will impact us the most.
Scripture References:
Galatians 3:28 
Romans 12:15-18 
John 4:1-26 
Luke 8:1-3

Jesus was exclusively inclusive.

We’ve created a lot of ads and messages about Jesus and women’s equality. Mostly because research has uncovered a lot of misconceptions out there regarding Jesus and how he thought about and treated women. It seems some cultural and religious traditions and norms have been conflated with the actual story of Jesus from the Bible (the most comprehensive record of Jesus’ life we have). So let’s explore four ways Jesus promoted women’s equality.
1.) GENEALOGY. Before he was even born. 
The Gospels are four different accounts of Jesus’ life written by four of his followers. The first one that appears in most Bibles is written by Matthew. He starts his story the same way many biographical books began back then — by tracing Jesus’ genealogy.
If you’ve ever read the Bible or other ancient Near Eastern texts, you’ll see this pattern of tracing family trees: “so-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so, etc.” We often skip these dry and boring sections of the text. But the genealogies in the Bible and similar ancient texts were less about historical records and more about proving a point about a person’s heritage or their claims to royalty or fortune.
Matthew includes a few clues in the genealogy that help us understand how Jesus thought about gender equality. He includes five women. That would have been very strange for the time. Stranger still are the women he chose to include as Jesus’ ancestors.
Tamar: A woman who pretended to be a sex worker to trick her father-in-law into getting her pregnant so she could keep her place in the family after her husband died. We know, it’s a crazy story. But it was really important in their culture at the time that she received justice according to their law. And justice for her was to have a family if she so desired. In fact, her father-in-law, upon realizing what happened, called her “more righteous than I.”
Rahab: A sex worker/brothel owner who hid spies from Israel and helped them gather intelligence on the defenses of her city, so they could be successful in conquering it.
Ruth: A widow whose love and loyalty were so confounding, she chose not to pursue the certainty of well-being she could have had by going back to her childhood family home after the death of her husband. Instead, she followed her mother-in-law to a strange land and married a close relative of her husband’s family to secure their welfare (again, it was culturally necessary at the time to ensure survival).
Bathsheba: A woman who was raped by the king. He saw her bathing and decided he wanted her. So he sent her husband to the front of a bloody war where he was all but guaranteed to die (he did), so he could rationalize his forcing himself on her. She became the king’s wife and experienced the loss of an infant child.
Mary: An unwed teen mom who, according to the law at the time, could have been stoned to death in the streets. She would no doubt have been gossiped about and ridiculed.
Of the dozens of women mentioned in Hebrew Scriptures, why were these five women chosen? Is it because they had to do desperate things to survive? Is it because each of them demonstrates different aspects of the plight of gender inequality in most cultures? Is it because they persevered in spite of seemingly impossible circumstances? We don’t know. But the story is certainly trying to tell us something about how we think about and judge women and the role they played in shaping Jesus’ identity.
2.) TALKING. Talking to women you didn’t know was a no-no.
He didn’t care. Jesus addressed women directly and publicly, something that was culturally confounding at the time. It even confused his own followers and closest friends. And he seemed to do it all the time with all kinds of women. Foreigners, enemies, widows, and sex workers, and in every recorded case, he connected with them personally with kindness and grace. In one often-cited case, he spoke to (1.) a Samaritan who was (2.) a woman and who was (3.) collecting water at a well in the heat of the day. Those three details tell us how culturally inappropriate it would have been for him to initiate a conversation. Samaritans were considered almost subhuman by most Jewish people at the time because of their racial impurity. Unknown women were never spoken to because they were traditionally considered property to the men in their lives. And if she’s collecting water by herself in the middle of the day, it likely means she was an outcast even among her own people, as women would generally collect water in the morning to stay cool and together to stay safe. We find out later she was likely an outcast because she’d been with so many men. But Jesus didn’t just speak to her; he asked her for a drink of water! To take water from her, from a vessel that she touched, and to drink it would have been unthinkable. But it demonstrated to his followers and all who heard the story that his movement would require people to think differently.
3.) EQUALITY. Jesus didn’t tolerate double standards.
During his ministry, some men brought a woman before Jesus. They accused her of adultery and then quoted the laws that said she should be killed. He successfully defended a woman from being executed publicly for committing adultery. They were looking for Jesus to condemn her as well. But he didn’t. You see, adultery is one of those things that requires two participants. But they didn’t bring the man caught in adultery before Jesus, just the woman. The whole situation reeked of hypocrisy, and Jesus had very little patience for hypocritical men when it came to sexual infractions of his day. So, he stepped in and protected the woman. He wouldn’t stand for the double standards.
4.) FOLLOWERS. Some of his first and most important followers were women.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the stories of Jesus more often than just about any other follower, including the other men in his inner circle known as the apostles. She is a central figure in just about every significant moment in his story.
Mary the sister of Martha (a different Mary than Mary Magdalene) is depicted sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his teachings. While that might seem very insignificant, that posture is reserved for disciples listening to their Rabbis. In that time, Rabbis didn’t take on women as disciples. It just didn’t happen. Jesus didn’t just allow it, he encouraged it.
Joanna was another loyal follower. She was married to a wealthy official named Chuza, whom the Bible identifies as a critical member of the government that would eventually have Jesus delivered to the occupying Roman forces for execution. Joanna and other wealthy women bankrolled Jesus’ mission. That’s right. Jesus’ love movement was funded by women.
Though some have tried to minimize their critical role in the creation of Jesus’ radical love movement, there’s no question women were essential.

Four ways Jesus supported women’s equality.

In Jesus’ time, communities were deeply divided by bitter differences in religious beliefs, political positions, income inequality, legal status, and ethnic differences. Sound familiar?
Jesus lived in the middle of a culture war, too. And though the political systems were different (not exactly a representative democracy), the greed, hypocrisy, and oppression different groups used to get their way were very similar.
Let’s set the scene.
Jesus was born at the height of the Roman Empire’s power. They’d conquered most of the known world, and Israel was no exception. Unlike previous empires that would try to destroy cultures by displacing conquered peoples’ leaders, the Romans didn’t force people to change their religion or customs as long as they kept their obligations to the empire. Rome would install a client king (a puppet government) and exact tribute (cash) in lots of different ways. Families were charged taxes per person—farmers on crops, fishermen on catches, and travelers were charged fees to use the roads. This was in addition to local business and religious taxes charged by priests.
In Israel, political and religious factions were one and the same. Back then, it was Pharisees and Sadducees. Today, we have conservatives and liberals.
The Pharisees were the most religiously conservative leaders. They had the most influence among the common working poor, who were the majority. They believed that a king would come one day to conquer Rome with violence and free their nation. Some preyed upon a mostly illiterate population by adding extra rules and requirements that were designed to force the working poor into a posture of subjugation.
The Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats who had a vested financial interest in Roman rule. They were in charge of the temple, and they didn’t believe any savior king was coming. They made themselves wealthy by exacting unfair taxes and fees from the labor of their own people and by contriving money-making schemes that forced the poor to pay exorbitant prices to participate in temple sacrifice—a critical part of their religion.
There were Zealot groups who hid in the hills and violently resisted Roman occupation, and then there were the Samaritans, often oppressed and marginalized because of their racial and ethnic identities.
And so, the common farmer, fisherman, or craftsman’s family lived through a highly volatile political period. Overbearing religious leaders who despised and oppressed them, wealthy elites who ripped them off, racial and ethnic tension with neighbors, and sporadic violent outbreaks between an oppressive occupying army.
So where was Jesus in all of this? Did he align with the religious elites? With the wealthy and powerful? Or did he start an uprising to overthrow them?
None of the above.
He went from town to town, offering hope, new life, and modeling a different way to live and to change the world. Instead of pursuing power, money, or religious authority, he shared a loving and sacrificially generous way of living. He chose not to go along with the schemes others used to impact the world. Instead, he championed a better way.
And so, each of these political groups saw him as a threat. The Pharisees recognized his movement as an affront to their authority—exposing the hypocrisy of their practices. The Sadducees saw Jesus as a threat to their power and wealth because he exposed their money-making schemes. The Zealots violently rejected one of the essential themes of Jesus’ movement: love your enemy.
In the end, it took all three of these groups to have him killed. A Zealot (Judas) betrayed his location to those seeking to arrest him, the Sadducees brought him before the Romans to be executed, and when the Romans couldn’t find a crime committed, the Pharisees rallied the people to force Rome’s hand.
Isn’t it funny how political foes can come together to destroy a common enemy that threatens their designs? But in spite of their best efforts, his execution was only the beginning of a movement that continues to impact the world thousands of years later. Jesus’ movement was so impactful because he actively resisted and rejected participating in culture-war politics.
<h2>Scripture Reference: Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 19:10</h2>

Jesus was fed up with politics, too.

Struggle

If someone asked you if you’d like to be rich, the answer for many of us would be, “Of course.” Our society glorifies the wealthy and their expensive things. We imagine our lives would be easier or more glamorous if we had gobs of money. So, we asked random people on the street if they were rich. Their initial reactions were based on their bank account balances or the size of their homes, but upon further reflection, most of them began to recognize that they were rich in other ways –– a wealth that comes from within. Could Jesus, a man with few material possessions, be considered rich? We hope you’ll explore deeper what it means to be rich in the way Jesus taught in <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/the-rich-life">The Rich Life</a>.

Do you want to be rich?

What if we told you that if Jesus had been born today, he would be from the sticks? The so-called boonies? A remote area that has a reputation of producing no one of prestige or education? The wrong side of the tracks? It may seem odd to think of Jesus this way, but it’s true. In Scripture, a conversation between two brothers, Phillip and Nathanial, provides context. One day Phillip met Jesus, heard his teachings, and felt his love. He was excited and went to share the good news with his brother, who replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
At the time of his birth, Jesus’ family was forced to flee Nazareth for Egypt after King Herod decreed that all children under the age of two be killed. Yes, Jesus was a refugee, and the people of his hometown were not wealthy or elite by any means. No one expected anything positive or prominent to come from there, let alone someone who would change the world forever.
Over two thousand years later, not much has changed. All we need do is turn on our televisions and observe how the media describes immigrants and refugees. They are often branded as invasive and disruptive, with their reasons for migrating and positive contributions muted. But why?
The answer lies, in part, within the concept of unconscious bias &#8211; we may not know an individual, but because of where they are from, the color of their skin, or what they are wearing,  we make judgments about them.
I was drawn to write this piece because I intimately understand the feeling of being dismissed because of where you come from. Unlike Jesus, I am not from the sticks, yet I, too, have judged because of where I came from. You see, back in middle school, I was the new black kid who moved from the looming city to the developing suburb. That gave the other kids a false narrative of how they thought I should be. Faster. Aggressive. Disruptive. Bold. In their minds, I wasn’t allowed to exist as I was because I looked a certain way and came from a side of town that mandated otherwise.
Jesus too faced stereotypes based on society’s ideas about who he should be. That’s why his persecutors inscribed “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” on the cross at his crucifixion. This was their attempt to mock him because how could a mere man from a small, forgettable town ever hold any power or authority? Perhaps others’ perception of him would have been different had he been born into a wealthy family in an area of prestige.
Jesus made a point to reach out to those who were judged because of their birthplace or circumstance. He spoke to Samaritans, the ethnic enemies of the Jewish people. He went out of his way to uplift lepers, who had been outcast by their communities. He conversed with women, who had little to no political power or social authority. He did so out of love, but he was able to do it so well because he had experienced similar dismissal.
Jesus provided an example of the powerful change that comes when we choose to overlook shallow demographics and focus our intent on truly understanding someone. How can we be more like Phillip, ignoring social hierarchy and judging not based on where someone comes from but solely on the content of their heart?
Scripture Reference: John 1:45-46

Jesus overcame bias, too.

The video “The Struggle” drew me in with its imagery and then presented me with the idea that Jesus struggled financially. And he’s just like us. Huh. It stops even someone like me in my tracks thinking about it. No request for money. No expectation for me to change. No expectation to do anything except consider that Jesus struggled just like me. Just like most of us.
It’s not the typical message, and it is anything but ordinary. The idea that Jesus is just like me, as opposed to the message that I need to change to become more like him, is extraordinary to me. It completely transforms my thought process around Jesus. It allows me to separate the idea of Jesus from the idea of religion. I’m immediately skeptical of any religious message. But this message doesn’t come with a request or any action item.
As someone who instantly becomes defensive and skeptical when religion is introduced into any conversation, I think that the whole notion that Jesus is like me, and therefore meets me where I am — has been where I am — without any expectation of reciprocity (or paying) to meet him, is a completely different message than any other I have heard before. It was the first time that I can recall knowingly receiving a religious message where I did not immediately tune it out.
If there is any hope in our world right now, it is that people will act with compassion, mercy, and love — all attributes that are often associated with Jesus, even by those who may not believe.
Scripture References: Matthew 8:20

Did Jesus really struggle as I do?

Love

<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1009" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LovedLouderHeadlines-01.png" alt="" width="3750" height="261" />Listening to the world around us, we couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that the volume is rising day by day. If you listen to the news, you hear louder voices, stronger opinions, and harsher disagreements. If you scroll through your social feeds, you see arguments in the comment section of the most benign posts. Everyone wants to be heard, and collectively, we seem to be going to greater and greater lengths to be the one voice loud enough to be made out above the din.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1011" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LovedLouderQuote1.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2400" />But as we listened, we noticed that most of what gets amplified — most of the stuff loud enough to be heard — is rife with hate, anger, and discontentment. And when hate gets amplified, too often, we try to drown it out with even louder hate from a different perspective. It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s one Jesus dealt with 2,000 years ago.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1112" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LovedLouderQuote-2-1.png" alt="" width="1800" height="750" />Everywhere he went, he was met with dissenting opinions, trap questions, and directed hatred. People were constantly trying to silence him, discredit him, or hijack his platform to amplify their own voices. It must have been infuriating, but he didn’t give in and add to the noise. Jesus used his voice, but he didn’t shout. He not only stayed on the path of preaching patience, selflessness, and love but more importantly, he also demonstrated them. He responded to the ever-increasing volume of hate with quiet and deliberate acts of love. And the result is evident in the fact that we’re still talking about it 2,000 years later: his love was louder, and it still is.

Jesus loved louder.

Weird is a relative term. We all have likes or dislikes or tendencies that others might consider weird. Some people think what we’re doing is weird—creating a campaign focused on the humanity of Jesus—a man who became the world’s most prominent religious figure. But as we read about Jesus, we cannot help but appreciate how often he made room for the outcast, the despised, and those people that most of society deemed “weird.”
His inner circle of disciples, for example, were not religious scholars but blue-collar workers, fishermen, former corrupt bureaucrats, and reformed violent zealots. It was a weird crew to start a love movement, to be sure.
And there was this story about a corrupt tax man named Zacchaeus. He was reviled by his own people. A corrupt tax collector working for the foreign occupying force of the Roman Empire, he made himself wealthy by extorting and overtaxing his countrymen. Oh &#8230; and he was really short.
By the time they’d crossed paths, Jesus had developed significant notoriety as a healer and a teacher. Crowds would follow him everywhere he went. When the crowd passed his way, Zacchaeus was curious to see what all the fuss was about, so he climbed a tree to see over the crowd of average-sized onlookers towering over him. And of all the people Jesus passed by, and of all the people who were following him down the path, Jesus only stopped for the odd short man that nobody liked sitting up in a tree.
Weird. But powerful. They spent time alone in his house, and their brief visit together changed Zacchaeus’ life. He gave back all the money (and some) he’d extorted from his fellow oppressed citizens. People marveled at how a visit with this teacher of love forever changed that weird little person.
And we were also enamored with the story of Mary Magdalene—one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Jesus. As his movement grew, she remained a steadfast member of his inner circle, but the Bible records her history as one who was demon-possessed. Tradition ascribed even more labels to her and her past, from being a prostitute and more. My guess is she had a host of challenges, and we don’t know all of them, but she certainly didn’t fit the mold most people would assume characterizes a devout, loving follower of Jesus. But Jesus welcomed her with open arms, helped her overcome her issues, and gave her an important role in his movement. It was one of the many instances where people dealing with spiritual, mental, and emotional disorders—even people with a questionable past—were not just cared for, but included in Jesus’ community in meaningful ways.
Jesus welcomed the weird, loved the weird, and built a movement full of weirdos that ended up changing the world. The example reminds us that every person has incredible value, and their story and their identity, no matter how strange, are beautiful and important.

Jesus welcomed the weird.

We’d venture to say that love carries as many shades of meaning as there are shades of color — 18 decillion by some estimates. That’s 18 followed by 33 zeros. From the feelings we as children have for a parent to the first spark of romance as an adolescent to the deep respect and admiration for a lifelong friend or partner, love is understood on some level by all of us, and misunderstood by all of us, too.
Is there a word to describe the shade or color of Jesus’ love? The word that comes closest is probably “agape” — an ancient Greek word that represents the highest form of charity or the love of God for humankind and vice versa. <img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-841" src="//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2366" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1.png 3750w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-300x189.png 300w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-785x495.png 785w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-768x485.png 768w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-1536x969.png 1536w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-2048x1292.png 2048w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-1200x757.png 1200w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexQuote1-1400x883.png 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 3750px) 100vw, 3750px" />
Jesus showed this kind of love through acts of selflessness and kindness, not only toward family and friends but also toward strangers and enemies. He commanded his disciples to “love one another, as I have loved you.” In essence, Jesus asked his closest followers to mimic the love he’d demonstrated to them toward others. Shortly before his death, he washed the feet of his disciples, including Judas Iscariot, who would betray him, to show that those who are willing to sacrifice and serve others are considered the greatest in the eyes of God. <img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-840" src="//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03.png" alt="" width="3750" height="261" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03.png 3750w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-300x21.png 300w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-1200x84.png 1200w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-768x53.png 768w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-1536x107.png 1536w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-2048x143.png 2048w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ComplexHeadlines-03-1400x97.png 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 3750px) 100vw, 3750px" />
As we considered the love of Jesus and this word agape, it struck us that the closest we, as humans, come to understand this love of God is probably through our family experiences — parent to child and child to parent. And this was the inspiration behind our commercial, “Unconditional.” What parent hasn’t stayed up all night with a sick child or spent hours helping with homework? We thought about parents who raise and care for a child with disabilities and special needs long into their adult years. Or adult children who change jobs and move thousands of miles to care for their aging parents.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-842" src="//wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2.png" alt="" width="1800" height="750" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2.png 1800w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-300x125.png 300w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-1188x495.png 1188w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-768x320.png 768w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-1536x640.png 1536w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-1200x500.png 1200w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Quote-2-1400x583.png 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" />This is the love Jesus taught. Selfless love that doesn’t come with any conditions nor require anything in return. Hopefully, this commercial will honor those who sacrificed tirelessly for us and inspire each of us to “go and do likewise.”
Scripture References: John 15:17; John 13:1-17, Romans 5:8

Love is a complex word.

Judgment

When holding onto anger was most justified, Jesus forgave, and he called us to do the same. We’ve compiled some of our favorite stories here as a testament to the power of forgiveness not just in the lives of the ones being forgiven but in the lives of the ones doing the forgiving as well. It seems Jesus might’ve been onto something.

How to forgive like Jesus did.

We were musing about how Jesus and his disciples were viewed in his day. If the authorities or religious leaders saw them walking down the street or hanging out on the corner, what would they have thought of them? It suddenly hit us. They would’ve been seen as troublemakers. And Jesus was their ringleader.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-938" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/JudgedQuote-01-2.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2796" />
Matthew, one of his followers, was a Jew who formerly collected taxes for the Romans. In essence, he was seen as a lowlife traitor. Some disciples violently opposed Herod, the King. Others were seen as uneducated dropouts. They were labeled and called many harsh things. But more importantly, they were seen as a threat to the establishment, which meant the people in power and the upper classes didn’t want them in their neighborhoods or synagogues.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-939" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/JudgedQuote-02-2.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2577" />
It’s no different today. If we see youths of a different race or culture dressed a certain way or wearing their hair differently, we often make immediate judgments about them. Usually negative ones. It might make us uncomfortable or even unfriendly toward them. It’s an unconscious bias we all have towards people who are different from us. We don’t know the individual, yet we’ve already labeled them.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-940" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/JudgedQuote-03-2.png" alt="" width="1800" height="750" />
Jesus didn’t judge others by their looks. He looked at their hearts. That meant reaching out to people who were outside his circle or society’s mainstream to get to know them individually. He was criticized, even mocked, for doing so, but he didn’t care because he loved all, even if it meant he would be wrongly judged for the friends he made and the company he kept.
One of the interesting things that happened while we were producing this was the casting. We wanted to use people that we thought would immediately elicit judgment from others. You’ll see that nobody is doing anything wrong or illegal. Maybe they’re running down an alley, skateboarding, hanging out on a corner, or hopping a fence, but viewers have been conditioned by society to make assumptions that they’re up to no good. Probably doing something illegal or criminal.
It was very intentional to point out the unconscious bias we all have and that we need to overcome if we’re going to build trust, love, and peace with each other.

How would Jesus be judged today?

<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-988" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/JudgmentalHeadlines-01.png" alt="" width="3750" height="261" />There’s this Scripture that kind of trips us up. Whether you’re a Bible reader or not, you’re probably familiar with it. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Matthew 7:1. Jesus says this toward the end of one of his most famous sermons. He was calling out the hypocrisy of pointing out the faults in others when we have our own faults we should be working on.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-991" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/JudgmentQuote1.png" alt="" width="3750" height="2255" />
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-989" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/JudgmentalHeadlines-02.png" alt="" width="3750" height="261" />Truthfully, we must make judgments about people almost every day. When applying for a job, do I want to work for this person? When meeting someone I’m attracted to, should I ask them out on a date? When I need to confide in someone, who do I trust as a friend? Just spend a couple of minutes online, and we realize our entire world is now based on reviews. From doctors to hotels, restaurants to dog walkers, many businesses live or die by the number of stars by their name.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-992" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Quote-2-2.png" alt="" width="1800" height="750" />Honest evaluation, however, is different from the judgment Jesus was speaking of. Honest evaluation of others is necessary for a safe and functioning society. The judging Jesus refers to comes from a different place. It comes from our ego. We’re often seeking to elevate ourselves by belittling someone else. Or we try to justify our own bad behavior by labeling somebody else’s behavior as worse. Sometimes, biases and grudges affect how we view and treat others.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-993" src="https://newstaging2stg.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Quote-3.png" alt="" width="1800" height="1200" />With that in mind, Jesus asked us to stop pinpointing the shortcomings of others and to look inwardly and deeply examine our own hearts and motives. It’s not comfortable. But here’s why it’s so important. Jesus knew that if we focused on our own faults and weaknesses, we could become more empathetic toward others. We’d recognize that, like us, every person has challenges and struggles that we can relate to. And that’s how Jesus’ radical love is demonstrated today. By recognizing our own flaws, we can all become a little more merciful, a little more patient, and a little more loving toward one another.
Scripture Reference: Matthew 7:1; Luke 6:37; John 7:24

Can I judge without being judgmental?

No.
He Gets Us simply invites all to consider the story of a man who created a radical love movement that continues to impact the world thousands of years later. There are many churches and Christian groups that can help people who are spiritually open to understand more about who Jesus was and why his words and life are relevant today.
Whether you consider yourself a Christian, a believer in another faith, a spiritual explorer, or not religious or spiritual in any way, we invite you to hear about Jesus and be inspired by his example.
For some people, that inspiration might evoke curiosity about what Jesus taught. Some might even want to <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://hegetsus.com/en/connect">have a conversation</a> with someone about spirituality or<a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://hegetsus.com/en/connect"> join a local class</a> about the Christian faith at a local church. And so, we offer those options, but that’s not our mission.
Some people will want to <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/28926-jesus-he-gets-us?_branch_match_id=1073350575304477221&amp;utm_campaign=JesusHeGetsUs1&amp;utm_medium=HeGetsUs&amp;_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXTywo0EvKTMpJ1UvOz9X3SHVPLSkOLTYEAOXfpTYfAAAA">read accounts of Jesus’ life from the Bible</a> at their own pace and on their own terms. We have reading plans that make that possible too. But there are never any strings attached.
We hope to be the voice of a movement — of people who have considered his story and found it deeply and personally transformational. For some, it has been a religious experience, and for others, it’s simply a call to strive to love others better.
No matter what your response is to his story, we encourage you to explore it from a new perspective.

Is this a campaign to get me to go to church?

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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. 
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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, 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. 
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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. 
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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 decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-639 size-full" src="//wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3.png" alt="" width="1800" height="1200" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3.png 1800w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-300x200.png 300w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-743x495.png 743w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-768x512.png 768w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1536x1024.png 1536w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-600x400.png 600w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1200x800.png 1200w, /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Quote-2-3-1400x933.png 1400w" sizes="(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.
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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.

He Gets Us has an agenda.

We get it. This is a unique effort, so we understand why this is one of the most common questions asked. 
Funding for He Gets Us comes from a diverse group of individuals and entities with a common goal of sharing Jesus’ story authentically. 
Most of the people driving He Gets Us, including our donors, choose to remain anonymous because the story isn’t about them, and they don’t want the credit. It’s about Jesus, who created a love movement that is still inspiring many people thousands of years later. 
The people pouring their time, energy, and money into this mission have come to the conclusion that this endeavor could be the catalyst of a movement toward unity for all of us. 
And in spite of our political differences, in spite of our ideological origins, in spite of all the things that could divide us, we have found a beautiful kinship in the inspiration we draw from the story of Jesus and the power of his life.

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