If you ever wonder if Jesus could love you after the ugliness of your past, read this: “[Jesus] sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him” (Luke 9:52). If you’re not stunned by that verse, you obviously aren’t a Jew from the first century.

About 1,000 years before Jesus, things went morally south in Samaria. A sort of civil war divided Israel into two parts, separating Samaria from Jerusalem. For the next 200 years, 20 kings ruled from Samaria’s capital, and none of them worshiped the true God, choosing idols instead. Thus God allowed the Assyrians to invade and take Israel into exile. In the process, however, the Assyrians dropped off some of their own idols, meaning Samaria was now a buffet of bad gods. By the time Jesus was born, Jews and Samaritans kept their distance from each other, refusing to associate with those neighboring heretics (John 4:9).

But Jesus was different. He wanted to share the truth with the Samaritans. His love shocked his Jewish friends and the Samaritans he first encountered, a reminder to us that grace, when properly understood, is amazing.

You may have a messy story. Your family may have a dysfunctional past. Your past (or present) may be filled with greed, sexual immorality, or other idols. But Jesus won’t let that stop him from reaching out to you with the message of his unconditional love. You might be far from good, but you are not too far gone for God.