This post is linked to this series about Faith and Entertainment and is specifically a continuation of this one (Part 2). If you’re seeing this first, go read the others in the series so as to be reading it “in context.”
This movie had such a huge impact on me. It was as if God stretched down His hand, opened my eyes, and helped me to see things about Him and His grace that I had been previously blind to. It helped me to have a better understanding of the freedom and abundance we are called to as believers. It truly changed my spritual life forever - for the better! I am glad to say that I have been “woken up” from The Matrix and I will not be put back to sleep!
First, and I said this in my original post, this movie was not created with any godly intentions that I know of. I do not pretend that the story was intended to convey the true gospel in any way, shape, or form. It was not created to glorify God. But I believe there are very important aspects of truth in it that are so powerfully conveyed, and it led me and many others to glorify God despite the writers’ intentions. Let’s take a look at just a few highlights…
First, surely you know that there is a significance to a name. There is a beautiful worship song that goes as follows: (inspired by 2 Corinthians 5:17)
(The Lord speaking to us, His children)
I will change your name.
You shall no longer be called…
Wounded, outcast, lonely, or afraid
I will change your name
Your new name shall be
Confident, joyfulness, overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God,
One who seeks My face
“You’re one who seeks My face.”
Names are important. They are also important in this movie. Neo, whose identity within the Matrix is Thomas Anderson tries to take hold of his true identity (Neo = “new”) throughout the course of the movie. They present him as a sort of a saviour, but I don’t look at him that way. I look at him as representative of all of us who are in Christ, who are made new creations, who have died to the old life, and been born into the new life, who have been given a “new name”. The enemy, in the case of the movie, is “personified” in Agent Smith, who tries repeatedly to oppress Neo by reminding him incessantly of his old, Matrix identity. Neo finally learns that to better embrace who he really is (in our case what it means to be in Christ) he has to truly “die” to his old self and claim his true identity. This begins in the train station fight scene. “My name is NEO!” Our weapons are scripture and truth, but the battle is not entirely different. It is a battle of the mind and the heart.
Speaking of death, when Neo dies and is reborn (okay, the kiss thing was totally hokey), there is an important spiritual principal in the scene that follows. When Neo finally clothes himself as it were in his new identity (for us, again that is being in Christ), he finally “becomes the one” and “gets” that he has amazing powers and resources at his disposal. So it is with us as Christians. If we could really truly wake up enough to what God in Christ has done for us, in us, and what He can do through us, we too would be staring bullets in the face without fear! We would be bolder, more confident, and less affected by the ways of the world. Mind over matter (Godly truth over worldly wisdom) would enable us to make godly decisions as though they were second-nature.
To me, the Matrix itself did not so much represent being reborn as a Christian but waking up from the numbing arena that has become so much of the church today. Much of Christendom is still sleeping. Living life semi-contented with jobs, money, marriage, and an occasional effort to fulfill some kind of spiritual quota (sound anything like the matrix?). They are striving (at least when it suits them) to perform for God, earn His approval in order to get a ticket into heaven. I’m talking about those who don’t get that the gospel is actually good news, but think it’s still about works, behavior, how you dress, whether or not you’re pierced, wear makeup, etc. YUCK. Who wants to be a part of the “let’s judge everybody else that doesn’t think like me” club? Anyhow, for me, waking up from the Matrix was like really getting the message of the gospel - it sets you free to not be bound by the rules of this world (or even to the old covenant) but to live by higher laws, which are written on our hearts and not in stone. Freed to live the abundant life that Jesus spent so much of his short life talking about!
The biggest problem I had with the movie, The Matrix, aside from the gun violence, was that any analogy does truly fall flat at this point. The “real world” was ugly, devastated, dark, and overrun with machines that had enslaved the entire human race. The Christian reality, is that when we wake up from the Matrix, we are suddenly alive to the realities of the Kingdom of God. It is but the smallest taste of our future dwelling in heaven and it is quite the opposite of the “real world” portrayed in the Matrx.
“There is no spoon” is of course one of my favorite lines. I love it because it speaks of spiritual realities being of greater substance than what we see surrounding us every day. We spend so much energy and time focusing on things of the earth rather than on the things of eternal value. It goes back to the human wisdom versus Truth argument. We know that everything that is of God will live eternally and anything that is not will be burned away. “There is no spoon” to me is just a daily reminder that material things are temporal but God is eternal. Let us focus on things which are eternal!
There are many more instances in this movie that can be used to highlight spiritual truths. To me, the movie was like a constant series of “object lessons”. Did it also contain “other stuff”. Sure, but those nuggets were like precious gold to me, so I guess I get a little defensive when people try to tell me it’s evil and oughtn’t be entertained. I don’t know if God would have just taught me those lessons another way, but I love it that He spoke to me through that movie!
Oh, I just remembered something funny! I originally did NOT intend to see the movie. From the previews it looked a bit scary and definitely violent. A dear friend of mine - God bless her for this! - argued and argued with me to convince me to go see it. She explained the basic story so I wouldn’t get too lost (as I have a problem sometimes following complex storylines). Her husband chimed in and seconded that I would find this movie “worth it” if I could tolerate the violence.
It was sooooo worth it to me!! I praise God that those Wachowski brothers made this film. Though they’d have done well to leave off with the next two! 
