Jesus touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, and hung out with prostitutes. If He can handle them, He can handle you.

How Jesus meets us in our mess and why your brokenness doesn’t disqualify you from His love

I spent most of my adult life thinking I was too far gone. Too messed up. Too broken. The things I’d done, the addictions I couldn’t shake, the lies I’d told myself and others – surely there was a line somewhere, and I’d crossed it a long time ago.

The shame was crushing. Even though I had moments where I knew calling out to God was the only thing that would be able to help a situation, I convinced myself that God would only help me if I was ready to confront everything at once. That I had to show up with some sort of progress already made, like I needed to prove I was serious before He’d even consider taking me back.

But here’s what I discovered after 25 years of running from God: Jesus didn’t come for the people who had it all together. He came specifically for people like me. People like you. People who are drowning and don’t know how to swim back to shore.

Why Jesus Didn’t Stay Clean and Comfortable

Think about this for a minute. Jesus could have stayed in heaven and dealt with the devil from his position as God. He could have kept His distance and managed things from up there, like a celebrity whose name is on a noble cause but never actually sets foot in the neighborhoods of the people they’re trying to help.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, He left perfection and stepped into our chaos. He was born in a stable, not a palace. He grew up in a working-class family in a small town that people made jokes about. He got hungry, tired, frustrated. He dealt with difficult people every single day.

Here’s the thing that blew my mind when I finally understood it: Jesus taking on human form wasn’t just about dying for us. It was about experiencing every single feeling, urge, pain, and temptation that we would ever face. He had to genuinely know what we go through – not just observe it from the outside, but actually live it.

And He did all of this without sinning. Which means He found a way through every temptation, every painful moment, every impossible situation that we face. He figured out how to navigate the mess of being human while staying connected to God.

But it gets even better. After He rose from the dead and went back to heaven, He didn’t forget what it felt like to be us. Right now, He’s there praying for us with the full understanding of exactly what we’re going through. When we call out to Him from our darkest moments, He doesn’t have to guess what we need – He’s been there.

Jesus didn’t just observe our mess from a safe distance – He climbed right down into it with us so He could pull us out of it.

He Gets Your Struggle Because He’s Lived It

Here’s what the Bible actually tells us:

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Every way. That’s not just “some ways” or “the lightweight stuff.” Every single way you’ve been tempted, every weakness you’ve struggled with, every moment you’ve felt like you were drowning – Jesus has been there.

He faced rejection from His own family and friends. He was misunderstood, mocked, betrayed by someone close to Him. He felt the weight of other people’s expectations and the pressure to be someone He wasn’t. He experienced grief, anger, and deep disappointment in people He loved.

The difference is, He didn’t give in to those temptations. But He felt them just as intensely as you do.

Nothing About Your Story Surprises Him

I used to believe that a significant portion of my life story was uniquely terrible and filled with mistakes that most people wouldn’t have made. I lived a very double life for a long time. I thought that if Jesus truly understood everything I had done, every thought I had entertained, and every place I had been, He would likely be grieved by it all. I imagined that He might even withhold His help for a while, expecting me to wait patiently because He knew I was aware of my actions and wanted me to learn important lessons from my own mistakes.

But when Jesus was walking around on earth, look at who He chose to spend time with.

• Tax collectors were basically the drug dealers of their day – they sold out their own people to get rich working for the enemy
• Prostitutes were society’s throwaway people
• “Sinners” became the catch-all term for everyone decent people avoided

And Jesus? He didn’t just tolerate these people. He actively sought them out. He ate dinner at their houses. He defended them when religious people criticized them. He treated them with dignity when everyone else treated them like garbage.

When the religious leaders got all bent out of shape about it, Jesus told them straight up:

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).

Your addiction doesn’t shock Him. Your past doesn’t disqualify you. Your current mess doesn’t make Him back away. If anything, it makes you exactly the kind of person He came for.

The Emergency Room Doctor Who Specializes in Hopeless Cases

Think about it like this: Would you rather have a doctor who only treated healthy people, or one who specialized in emergency cases?

If you’re having a heart attack, you don’t want the family doctor who only does routine checkups. You want the one who’s seen it all, who’s worked in the ER, who knows how to handle a crisis.

That’s Jesus. He’s not the clean, sanitized, “let’s chat about your minor issues” kind of counselor. He’s the one who shows up when everything’s falling apart. He specializes in hopeless cases. He’s literally built His reputation on taking people who were completely written off and giving them a brand new life.

Luke 19:10 puts it perfectly:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Not the slightly confused. Not the people who just need a little guidance. The lost. The completely, utterly, hopelessly lost.

If that’s you right now, you’re not disqualified from His help. You’re exactly who He’s looking for.

He’s Still Getting His Hands Dirty in Your Mess

The beautiful thing is, Jesus hasn’t changed. He’s still the same person who touched the untouchable, who sat down with the outcasts, who looked past everyone’s surface problems to see their hearts.

He’s still willing to meet you wherever you are – in your addiction, in your shame, in your anger, in your confusion. He’s not waiting for you to clean up your act first. He’s not keeping score of your failures. He’s not shocked by your mistakes.

He’s just waiting for you to let Him get His hands dirty in your mess.

Your Next Step: Read This One Story

I want to challenge you to read one story from Jesus’s life. It’s in John chapter 4, about a woman He meets at a well. This woman had been married five times and was currently living with someone she wasn’t married to. She was so ashamed that she came to get water in the middle of the day when no one else would be around.

But when Jesus met her, He didn’t lecture her. He didn’t shame her. He didn’t make her clean up her life before He’d talk to her.

Instead, He treated her with dignity. He saw past her mistakes to who she really was. And by the end of that conversation, her whole life was different.

Read that story and ask yourself: If Jesus could treat her that way, how might He want to treat you?

The Truth I Wish Someone Had Told Me 25 Years Ago

Because here’s the truth I wish someone had told me 25 years ago: Your mess doesn’t disqualify you from Jesus’s love. It actually qualifies you for it.

He came for people just like you. And He’s still coming for people just like you.

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Are you ready to let Jesus meet you in your mess? He’s been waiting for you longer than you know.