White knuckles wrapped around an empty whisky bottle, and the vacant gaze of a homeless alcoholic defines the raw face of addiction and humanity’s fallen condition. In its vulgar extreme, addiction is easy to see, stripping man of dignity, reduced to an animal, driven by a single desire. But it is those subtle, cultured forms of addiction and compulsive behavior which are so difficult to discern. An alcoholic or drug addict quickly becomes socially isolated but subtle forms of addiction are able to flow quite happily along in the social current, and even be comfortable in the pews of our church.
Addiction is anything that has become stronger than your will power to change. Instead of you being in control, the addiction is all powerful and you feel a sense of helpless to do anything about it...for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him (2 Pet. 2:18,19). Whether it is caffeine or processed sugar, addiction creates impulses, false needs and behavioral patterns which are destructive to well-being, and can have a greater authority in behavior than the natural desire to eat and drink. The salt, fat and crunch of junk food, offer emotions of fulfillment that is lacking because of a spiritual vacuum. Tangible potato chips, replacing an intangible God. Emotional emptiness is the source of addiction. Dependency on pleasure to temporarily numb feelings of hopelessness.
The sensations of hunger and thirst are homeostatic mechanisms, helping the body maintain optimum levels of energy, nutrients and water. Hunger sensations coincide with strong peristaltic contractions of the stomach, increased sensitivity, weakness and irritability. A new-born infant soon learns that these symptoms are relieved by the ingestion of food. When addictive foods are eaten repeatedly, the body adjusts homeostasis to be balanced with the food in the system. Over time the body will become dependent on that substance for homeostatic balance, removing it will cause withdrawal. The body cries out for the missing substance as just intense hunger cries for food. Control has been established on the inside of you. Even if there is an intense desire to lose weight or quit a bad habit, there is often failure and discouragement.
Bread of Life
A crowd searched for Jesus after He fed the five thousand. Finally they found Him on the other side of the lake. Jesus was trying to elude them—He knew their hearts. But they were persistent. When they finally found Him, He said, I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill (John 6: 26). How alone Jesus must have felt.
They didn’t want Jesus—they cared nothing for Him. They didn’t love Him. All they cared about was what Jesus could provide for their bellies. The cravings of their belly blinded them to the fact that they were standing in the presence of the Living God, the Author of Life. One who could provide Spiritual manna, an everlasting well-spring of life that would create no addiction or craving, producing perfect contentment and full satisfaction.
Jesus was Life personified! Life in flesh. Yet they were utterly blinded by their own shallow hunger. Jesus stood among strangers who ought to have been His friends. What a lonely thought.
Yet from His generous love, He reached out to this blind crowd with words that could give sight. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6: 51).
Astonishing words! Nearly all of His disciples left Him. They did not understand. Here stood before them the solution to every need and desire in their miserable lives. Yet, in self-deception, they turned their backs and walked away from the Author of Life. Clawing and grubbing in a dark, stank world for tidbits of pleasure, desperately hoping to find a balm to their painful, grumbling soul, only to find death. Jesus turned to His twelve disciples, with a look of pleading He asked, you do not want to leave too, do you?
You could feel His rejection. But as the disciples stood in a state of dismay, Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know you are the Holy One of God. (John 6:68,69)
Peter saw Jesus as his only hope. He had left everything to follow Him, fishing, wife and children, the security of home and the warmth and comfort of bed—they were naked in a cold world. They had nowhere to go. Their only comfort—the Living God. Jesus was their all.
Going to Jesus when you are hungry is a step of faith. The crowd did not believe that He was Life. They were convinced that they could find fulfillment in this world and that Jesus was only a part of that picture. When we hold the empty cup of our soul to heaven, turning our backs to all that the world would provide, we explicitly proclaim Christ as being our sole Source of Life. It is an act of faith against which all of hell will war.
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