God in the Movies
The Matrix
What is Real?
Warning – for any children in the audience, some of the clips might be disturbing
Premise of the movie for any that haven’t seen it. The main character is a computer hacker called Neo. He suspects that something is wrong with the world, but he doesn’t know what it is. He is put in touch with a resistance group led by a character called Morpheus. Morpheus reveals to Neo that everything he thinks of as reality is in fact a complex computer program – and that in fact, every human is contained in a container and is nothing more than a battery, producing heat and electrical energy for the Artificial Intelligence machines that have taken over the world. Neo is presented with the opportunity to break out of the program, give up his version of reality and become part of the resistance.
1. It’s the Question that drives us…
- there must be something more
As Trinity, one of the resistance fighters, reveals to Neo – it is the question that drives us. The question of, is this all there is. We tend to ask ourselves that question when life is tough. Is this all there is to life? Is this all that it’s about. Is this really as good as it gets. And philosophers throughout the ages have asked the same question. The Greek philosopher Gorgias compared us to leaky jars – we are never satisfied, and always looking to be filled up again, to have our jar full so that we can feel okay. The British philosopher Mick Jagger, put it this way “I can’t get no satisfaction”. And most of us can identify with this sense of unease. If this really is as good as it gets, then I’m not filled with hope. And we try and fill up our jars with different things – with a relationship, with success, with an important career, with material possessions or toys, or entertainment, or distractions – but it doesn’t satisfy. As Augustine said “Our souls are restless” and if we are honest we have experienced that, this restlessness, this lack of satisfaction…and we know this cannot be all that there is. And there are crises in life that serve to bring us to this point – maybe divorce, maybe the end of a painful relationship, maybe the death of a loved one – we stand on the other side of those things and say to ourselves – if this is the final word, if this really is all there is, then it just doesn’t make sense – and we can be filled with hopelessness.
2. Something is wrong with the world…
- it was never meant to be this way
Neo had senses that something was wrong with the world
- in his case, something was wrong because it was an illusion that he was living.
But we too have probably experienced this sense of something being wrong with the world. As I sat in front of my TV on Sep 11 last year watching the second plane crash into the world trade center, something inside me was saying “Something is wrong with this world.”
Recently watching the news about all the kidnappings of young girls, who are later found dead and often sexually molested, something in me cries out that it was never meant to be this way. What kind of world do we live in where an innocent young girl can’t go out to play, where parents have to fear for the safety of their children.
It’s just so wrong – and it was never part of the original plan. When God created this earth, and put humankind on it – it wasn’t in his design that we should do these things to each other, that we should do what we have done to this planet. God created us to love him and to love one another, to cherish the beautiful world that he had given us. And what have we done? The blood is on our hands.
Because each one of us is infected with a disease. The Bible calls this disease sin. And just like the West Nile virus which is creeping steadily westward, so sin, which started in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, has crept its way and contaminated the whole of humanity. And not one of us is free from its effects. It corrupts our minds, our desires. We know how we struggle. We know the darkness that is in each of our souls. We know there is stuff we think about that we’re glad no one else ever gets to know.
The Bible puts it this way:
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom. 3:23
And isn’t that the truth. That we were destined for something so much greater than this – than this grubbing around, this hating, hurting, hitting, backstabbing and biting that we’ve somehow grown used to – so that now we think of it as just the way it is – that’s life, dog eat dog, look out for number one because no one will. You scratch my back, I’ll claw yours – and somehow we’ll get by. And the world becomes populated by bitter, hurting people who don’t believe in love any more. Who have lost the dream. Who don’t dare hope that life could be good again. Maybe you’re one of those – so battered and bruised by life – it takes all your energy just to hold yourself together and function each day – and you don’t think you can take any more heartbreak – because another one might just kill you. Hang in there – hope is coming.
3. The Death of an Illusion
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. ”
John 3:3
If that isn’t a graphic illustration of being born again, then I don’t know what is.
Being born again is a Christian jargon sort of phrase, so I’ll explain it a little. Obviously you don’t become physically born again, but you experience such a radical re-ordering of your understanding of the world, that only a phrase like being born again can explain it.
If you can cast your mind back to when you were first born – or imagine the sensation. The previously secure baby, who had grown quite comfortable thank you very much in this quiet pink room with the reassuring heartbeat, is thrust out into this bright new world, where everything feels different, looks different – and it’s a little bit scary. Even though it’s a progression, it can feel threatening.
When you decide to follow Jesus Christ, you’re signing up for the same sort of thing. You are shaken out of the way you previously viewed life. You discover that there is a parallel world to this one – that there is more to life than work, taxes, bills and stress.
But you weren’t aware of this – the Bible recognizes this delusion and talks about it like this:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2Cor. 4:4
And the strange fact that this parallel world is even more real than the one we are used to living in. For the sake of argument, lets call this parallel world, the spiritual world. And this is some new stuff for the brain to fathom. It turns out that you have a soul. And it turns out that this soul was created by God so that you could know him and experience his love. This is new information – that there is a God after all, that he knows you (even with your failures and your dark side) and he loves you. The creator of the universe wants a relationship with you. Yes, even though there are billions of people on this planet, he is interested in you. And whatever you think you’ve done, however much of a loser you think you may be – nothing can separate you from the love of God. It’s unbreakable.
This is what the Bible says about it:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom. 8:38,39
See what’s in there. The acknowledgement of this parallel world, the spiritual world (which includes angels and demons and real evil) but which also includes the love of God which is stronger than any of those.
But some will want to hang on to the illusion of the first world – believing that only what you see is real. There’s a funny scene in the movie where Cypher tells Neo “I know what you’re thinking. Why O why didn’t I take the blue pill.” The blue pill being the one that allows you to continue living in the computer program believing it’s the real world. And the irony is, later on Cypher, who is a Judas figure, betrays them and makes a deal with the Artifical Intelligences to be put back in the container, to enter the illusion again. He would prefer to live in the fantasy world, than face the reality that there is something more than this.
Some of us would like that too. To believe that there is no God. To believe that nothing I do really matters. That nothing has eternal consequences. That there is no such thing as heaven and hell.
Of this attitude, the Bible says this:
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven.
Phil. 3:19,20
Some things – it doesn’t matter whether you believe them or not. That doesn’t change the truth of them. For these people – their god is their stomach – their focus is earthly pleasures with no thought of eternal matters – their mind is on earthly things. They are trapped in the illusion that only what they can see is real… and sadly, that road only leads to destruction. Because God doesn’t force anyone to believe in him, to follow him. He invites, but it is up to us to respond. And if we turn our back on his love, refuse to accept it – then he allows us to do that – and the consequence is eternal separation from God – a state of being the Bible calls hell.
4. Welcome to the desert of the real
The real world in the Matrix is a wasteland, the result of nuclear devastation in the battle between the humans and the Artificial Intelligences. The real world for us is what we make of it. We can choose to see it as a playground for us to lose ourselves in, a fantasy type world where we just live for whatever pleasure we can squeeze out of it – but there are consequences to that:
Back to the Bible:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For everything in the world —the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does —comes not from the Father but from the world.
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1John 2:15-17
Do not love in this context means do not give your ultimate allegiance to something that is temporary. Life on this earth is temporary, so limit your investment here.
If you were given house but told that it was going to be destroyed by an earthquake in 3 months, you would limit the amount of money that you put into it. You wouldn’t redecorate every room, buy extra things, add on an additional room, buy new furniture etc – because you would be throwing all that money and emotional investment into something that’s going to vanish. You are placing your valuable resources into something that is temporary.
Instead you put your resources into something that lasts for ever – your soul, your spiritual life, loving God, loving others, living in a way that is in stark contrast to the culture around us that is busy spending all it can on the temporary.
You see, in the spiritual world you’re living with a different time frame. You’re not asking, how can I squeeze the most out of these 75 years. You’re asking deeper questions than that. You’re asking: What is really important? How can I prepare for being with God forever? What really counts?
And you can look at the world and say:
- it doesn’t have to be this way
Because when you declare your allegiance to God, you become an agent for change. You start to love the unlovely. You take care of those who have nothing special to give back to you. You get involved in situations of injustice and try and put it right. Because these things do matter to God – and as his agent, they start to matter to you too.
The desert of the real does not need to remain a desert.
5. Rewriting the Matrix
- the man who rewrote the matrix, set people free, taught the truth, whose return is prophesied, who will bring an end to war and provide eternal freedom
Doesn’t that sound like someone you would want to know
Jesus Christ: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18,19
Jesus Christ: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
Jesus Christ: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Entering into this parallel reality doesn’t mean that life will be less. Life will be more. Instead of viewing life as simply work, taxes, bills and stress, there’s a glory to it, there’s a beauty to it.
It’s beauty when God can look at you and look at me and look at the wrong things we’ve done and say, “Let’s start again. My Son’s death on the cross has paid any penalty you owed for what you did wrong. Now come to me and let me love you.”
It’s beauty when God can take a cold heart like mine and bring me to tears at the wonder of a humpback whale by the side of a boat.
It’s beauty when God can take selfishness and transform it into self-giving love, moving a businessman to give up his Sunday mornings to serve breakfast to a homeless man stinking of urine.
It’s beauty when God can take the agonizing tragedy of death and rewrite the matrix so that is becomes a doorway to knowing him closer than ever before, and so that death does NOT have the final word.
It’s beauty when God helps to realize that this is not all there is, that this is just a foreshadowing of an amazing reality that he has prepared for us in a place called heaven, where there will be no more pain, or crying, where God will wipe away every tear, where broken hearts will be mended for all time, and where love finally reigns.
The blue pill or the red pill. It’s your choice.
