The Great Unknown
John 4:5-42
by Nicole Trotter
San Francisco Theological Seminary M.Div. Student
“Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.” John 4:28-30
I’ve had a Baptist running partner for 9 years now. We began running together because we both wanted a partner we wouldn’t have to talk to. And now, after nine years, we can’t stop talking: about God, theological differences, and our lives in relationship. I challenge her beliefs, and she prays for my soul, which is good, in the off chance I’m wrong.
Recently on a cold winter sunrise run together, I expressed deep regret about feeling unknown by those closest to me, and questioned how this could be possible. She proposed that possibly no one ever knows us – completely knows us – in this life, and it’s only when we’ve “gone home” to Jesus that we feel known so completely. That means I have to wait. I’m not good at waiting.
Later that week on another run, this time alone, I saw in the distance a four-year old boy from Sunday school. As I approached him, his face lit up and grew brighter with each step. Finally he yelled, “Hey, you know me!” That’s the age appropriate way to say hello when you are still developmentally the center of the world. As we grow older and become “complicated,” we never really lose this desire to be known, really known, and here’s the kicker, to be loved despite being known.
To feel unknown, unrecognized, and in turn to no longer recognize one’s self, is a blessing of if its own kind. It is a blessing blanketed in need. A blessing blanketed in thirst. It’s the kind of blessing only the Messiah can love us through, until we emerge entirely known anew.
A Samaritan woman comes to a well, thirsty, feeling quite separated, invisible, and unknown by this strange Jewish man. He sees her, all of her, brings her into him, and in doing so she is the one who brings others into the story. The story continues long after the cross and into today as we are known by him and to one another through him. With him we have a home that is perhaps the only home we will ever really know, now, today, and forevermore.
