Holy Week sounds deeply spiritual, doesn’t it? It sounds like a week characterised by tranquility, reflection, depth, ascetism and piety. For many religious Christians throughout the world, perhaps; but it wasn’t so for Jesus.

The Passion of Jesus was really the culmination of a season of crisis. It wasn’t merely a trivial crisis that he went through. It was a life crisis that put him and his friends to the test. Two of the main things that were tested throughout this crisis were friendship and loyalty.

Crisis truly has a way of testing us and bringing to light the deepest motivations of our hearts. The deepest forms of selfishness emerge in the face of a crisis. The strongest anger lashes out in the face of a crisis. The most lethal vengeance is executed in the face of a crisis. Crisis mercilessly leaves us with no way to hide the secrets of our hearts. If on a normal day we are able to camouflage ourselves with props which exhibit deep devotion towards God, loyalty towards friends, and selflessness towards humanity, the true state of our hearts comes to light when crisis hits.

And so it was with those people who called themselves friends of Jesus.

When crisis befell them, very quickly, betrayal and abandonment took over. They started scattering themselves away from him and denying that they ever knew him. Understandably, they needed to survive in a world where reputation and security mattered. And perhaps, if this Messiah wasn’t strong enough to come up against the diabolical powers ruling the land, if he was going to suffer a disgraceful fate, then they would be justified for moving on with life and acknowledging that they had placed their bets on the wrong horse.

So, yes… after the deeply moving episode of the washing of feet, the vows to remain faithful to him even unto death, and the partaking of his body and his blood, they conveniently failed him and themselves when a crisis hit soon after. So much for all the claims to friendship and undivided loyalty.

Holy Week is a week of crisis. It challenges us to confront ourselves with the deepest motivations of our hearts. If all throughout the year, we’ve been professing religious claims of loyalty, piety, service and sacrifice, Holy Week confronts us with what we are actually capable of doing to God, to one another, and to ourselves when a crisis hits.

May we not be too quick to submerge ourselves into the resurrection joy of Easter. Before any of us actually thinks we’re already Christian enough in God’s eyes, let the reality of the Holy Week confront us and linger a little longer - so that we may see the true state of our hearts.

And if there, we see and acknowledge the capacity for bitterness, for abandonment, for betrayal, and for self-motivation that lies within us, this may just be a definitive moment of conversion for some of us.

To friendship...