Matrix. Most people will know this movie that was made in 1999. It was in some ways a milestone in the history of movies with certain techniques being used for the first time. And it is quite unique, really. The way scenes and techniques interact and benefit the plot and the ideas of the movie is almost artistic. But what I want to talk about in this post and other posts to come is the plot and the basic idea behind the Matrix and how it can benefit me in my relationship to Jesus.
I know that you could see lots of parallels to other belief systems or world religions – and this indeed is what was the intention of the directors Andy and Larry Wachowski. But ever since I started thinking about the Matrix in gospel terms, it made more and more sense and stayed in line with biblical truth, although there’s is one huge theme that isn’t addressed very clearly (and yet it is there). I am going to write about that at a later point in time.
So where to start? I saw quite a few concepts of how to interpret the Matrix that say ‘Morpheos is God, Neo is Jesus and Trinity is the holy Spirit’. This is NOT the way I’m going to look at things because I think there is a much deeper truth behind the whole concept of the Matrix. Yes, Neo’s death and resurrection are of fundamental importance but it doesn’t make sense to parallel it to Jesus’ death and resurrection on Golgatha and in this way make Neo the same as Jesus in the movie.
So who is Neo? Neo is you and me. Neo is every man and woman, everyone living on this planet. And Neo is about to be set free. From what? From the Matrix, from ‘the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth’ (Morpheos). The Matrix is all ‘around us’ and we do live in it (although some of us are not from it). It’s the thing that keeps us from being who we really are. And if we are unaware, we don’t even notice it.
Note that it’s not some crazy machines we ourselves created that hold us hostage but ‘the god of this world’ , in one word Satan.
‘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’
2 Corinthians 4:4
(There’s many bible verses that describe Satan as god or ruler or prince of this world, I’m gonna try and collect them at some point.)
Fact is that we don’t need to enter the Matrix, we are in there already !!!
So the next questions would be: How do we become aware of this fact? Is there anything that indicates this, any proof for what I just wrote?
