Hands down, one of my favorite Bible stories is of the Good Samaritan. I read it as a child, and even then, I knew that this story spoke of something powerful, heavenly, other-worldly.
Last month, I read an amazing story about some modern-day Good Samaritans. Who actually live in Samaria. A story about the Azzeh family, West Bank Palestinians who became the epitome of the Good Samaritans to a bus load of Jewish settlers who happen to be their neighbors, and are also in many ways, their enemies. I couldn’t contain my curiosity. I HAD to meet these people.
So I contacted a friend, who brought another friend, we made a date and off we went. We drove to the area in Samaria (which is located in the West Bank) where the Azzeh family lives. We found the family amazingly quickly, and soon were invited in, and served hot, sweet black tea laced with sage.
After introducing ourselves, one of the Good Samaritans, Samir Azzeh, began to tell his family’s story:
“We had gone to bed for the evening, and around 1:00 a.m., woke to the sound of a loud crash. We ran outside, down the hill, and saw there were injured people all over the place. We reached the bus crash site and called the police and civil defense. There were two people dead and seven wounded. To add this to this, there was a winter storm, adding cold and rain to the tragedy.
Many of the wounded looked at us as if they were frightened, that maybe we wanted to hurt them but Samir and his family began to reassure them, using the little Hebrew they had, and told them that they had called the authorities and were there to help.
Shortly after this, the authorities arrived, and together we worked for five hours straight in the cold and the rain to evacuate the dead bodies and wounded civilians.”
The Azzeh’s decision to help the victims of this bus crash is a bright light amidst the dark clouds of ongoing tensions between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), settlers and Palestinians in the northern West Bank, aka Samaria.
The Azzeh family said “we didn’t think about the broader political implications of our actions . . . rather we are humans helping other humans. In their words “It did not matter that they were Jews – we would have helped anyone.”
“We grew up with the values of love, tolerance and peace, and we teach our kids these values as well,” Samir’s brother, Jamal said. “We gain nothing from despising and hating others.”
The Azzeh family has been receiving phone calls thanking them over the past month . . . government officials have visited them and the army coordinator’s office gave them certificates of appreciation. In addition, some of the settlers who survived the crash also visited the Azzeh home and thanked them.
While we were meeting with this amazing family, we told them that we were so glad to meet them. That we were proud of them. That they were brave. I believe this is a primary trait of a Good Samaritan. To love beyond our fears, to do the right thing. There were tears in eyes that day.
The irony that there are still Good Samaritans in Samaria should be a lesson to us. Acts 1:7-8 says: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth”. Of all the regions in the New Testament world to choose as an example, Jesus specifically uses Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria. Maybe, it’s because he knew that these enemies would resurrect one day. Deep enemies. Enemies that go out of their way to avoid each other. To not see each other. To reject each other’s right to exist. To do violence to one another and justify it.
My hope and prayer is that we will not be like those enemies, but rather like the Azzeh family. Not just in times of desperate need of a bus crash, but when we are living the the mundane: Grocery shopping with our enemies, passing our enemies on the street. That we won’t demand from God to have different enemies to love. But that we will choose to be a Good Samaritan.
(Me overlooking the crash site)
