Who is the "Us?"

I only watched the 4th quarter last night, but I did see one of these commercials funded by wealthy conservative Christians. They are promoting a version of Jesus who is generous and loving and rejects “being political.” The end of every ad says “He gets us. All of us.” The problem with this kind of propaganda is that it does not make the “us” explicit. In oppressive societies like 1st century Palestine and 21st century America, there are both oppressors and the oppressed. The “us” cannot possibly mean everyone. 

In the Gospels, Jesus consistently takes a courageous stand against oppressors, those who seize and maintain their wealth and power by exploiting and excluding others. Jesus was “being political.” He calls King Herod a fox. He turns over the tables of the Temple bankers. He demands that the rich young ruler give away all his possessions. The text says that Jesus loved the rich man—so much so that he put up a boundary to his destructive behavior. 

Jesus knew that the rich man made his money off exploiting and excluding those Jesus called “blessed:” the poor, persecuted, pure in heart and those who hunger for justice. He also told his disciples that after political and religious elites canceled him on a cross, he would rise up in the bodies of the unhoused, uninsured, unfed, unclothed, immigrant and imprisoned people of the world—the very folks being exploited and excluded by those funding these ads.