The Cyber-Gospel of the Matrix: Part II – Processing
The Matrix is a modern cyber-parable of the Christian gospel – the Good News that although this world sometimes seems hopeless and meaningless, there is another world we can reach out for. In Part One of this analysis, we saw Neo come to the place where he had to choose which world he would live in – the dream world or the real world:
“This is your last chance, Neo,” warns Morpheus. “After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” Neo takes the red pill and begins the process of Awakening.
As Neo’s conversion begins, he sees a mirror, with a fractured reflection of himself. As he gazes into the mirror, it becomes clear and he sees an unfractured portrait of himself. He reaches out and touches it and it takes him over. The reflection becomes him, so that no matter what part of him he looks at, he sees himself. In the Bible, Paul says “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Neo begins to see himself clearly for the first time. He sees his sin – the cracks in his facade, but he also senses the beginning of the healing process – the cracks are already disappearing. As Neo’s conversion begins, he becomes aware that he now has the capacity to look honestly at himself.
Now Neo literally begins the process of being born again. As he’s jacked in and dialed out, he wakes up in a womb-like tank, connected to numerous tubes which have been spoon-feeding him the bare essentials to live, but also sucking the life out of him (and millions of others) to feed the energy of the Machine. He is freed from the tubes, ejected from the “womb” and flushed down a tunnel (birth canal) and deposited (baptized) in a pool, which washes off the gunk of his former existence, and also virtually drowns him.
As Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? We have been buried with Him through baptism in death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6: 3-4). Baptism is the symbol that we have put to death our old life, and we rise out of the water into a new life, a new reality, a new Kingdom. Neo’s dream-like existence is now dead, and unconscious of what he is about to experience and become, he is lifted up into in the light, into a new world, a new consciousness, as a new man. He is no longer Thomas Anderson (the name the Matrix gave him), but truly Neo – born anew.
As Neo wakes to the new world, at first he is confused and disoriented. He is helpless as a baby. He must learn to walk again. His muscles (his will) have atrophied and must be stimulated to work as they should. His senses are so sensitive, it’s painful to use them: “Why do my eyes hurt?” he asks. “Because you’ve never used them before,” replies Morpheus. Neo has been awakened, but he must learn to function again. He must learn to feel and walk and run, and to truly see the world around him for the first time. And this will take training. At first Neo’s new world seems rather UN-real to him, and he begins to doubt that he has entered a new world at all. “This can’t be…” he begins to protest. “Be what?” Morpheus responds. “Be real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel and smell and taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world you knew… it exists now only as part of the neural-interactive simulation we call the Matrix. You’ve been living in a dream world, Neo. THIS is the real world. Welcome to the Desert of the Real!”
What Neo sees is a post-apocalytic scene of dark destruction. The surface of the planet has been completely devastated. Man has virtually destroyed the “real” world – the only way they can make it tolerable is to live in a dream world, a fantasy of success and comfort. Ultimately, Neo must face the truth of his devastated life, before he can hope to restore the desert of his soul to any semblance of real life. This is why Jesus says, “I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Morpheus begins to train/disciple Neo. His training takes place on the Nebuchadnezzar – a ship named after a pagan king who became a believer once his dreams were properly interpreted to him. He is being trained to return to the Matrix. Like the disciples at the Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17), it is tempting to cling to a state of spiritual euphoria. As much as we may want to move straight to heaven (Zion), we must first complete our destiny in the world. We are disciplined and trained to fulfill our destiny and the will of God – which is to find and rescue others from the Matrix. Back into the world we must go.
Morpheus takes Neo to a simulated training matrix to teach him how to move in the Matrix (the world) again. “None of this is real. It is a basic construct like the Matrix. Your hair, your clothes – they are what we call a ‘residual self-image’- it is how you saw yourself in the dream world, the Matrix,” explains Morpheus. Many of us come into the Kingdom with this residual self-image – old tapes of who we believed we were, with all the limitations and doubts and fears and failures. If we are going to succeed as new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), we must learn to refashion that image and see ourselves as God sees us – with all the gifts and potential and destiny He gave us and intends us to use.
After Neo fills his head with the basic training manual (the Bible), he wakes up to a startling revelation: “I know Kung Fu!” This is not ordinary combat – this is not ordinary warfare. Neo is learning spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6). He must learn to operate in the Matrix without being bound by its laws – of gravity, time, materialism, or power. He must learn to be “in the world, but not of it” (John 17). This is what Paul meant when he said, “For though we walk in the flesh (the Matrix), we do not war according to the flesh (the Matrix), for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh (the Matrix), but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses/the pulling down of strongholds” (tearing down false constructs – the Matrix) (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
Neo begins to learn a number of lessons about life in this new reality. He must learn not to let his old reality limit his new one. “I am trying to free your mind, Neo. But all I can do is open the door. You have to walk through it.” We cannot inherit anyone else’s faith. We cannot simply live on the expectationsof others for the rest of our lives. We must experience God for ourselves. We must grow ourselves and become Christ-like in our own way, at our own pace. “Were you looking at me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?” Like Peter when he walked on the water, but was distracted by the waves (Matthew 14:25-33), Neo has some faith – he even begins to walk on water (defying gravity and time in the training room). But the bright, sensual attractions of the world can still distract him from his spiritual focus and power. The key to discipleship is discipline. And certain disciplines cannot be dispensed with, if we are to survive spiritually in the Matrix.
Although Neo is superbly gifted, he cannot make the leap of faith that is required of him during his first test. Although he has already taken great strides, his fears keep him from going as far as he is capable. (The fear of heights he experienced earlier in the movie still plagues him.) Faith does not come from acknowledging the possibility of faith. It comes from living and experiencing faith in the crucible of life. Believing is not merely mental assent or wishful thinking. This is not the Little Train That Could. Believing is knowing. And Neo does not yet know.
One final thing Morpheus imparts to Neo is his role and his destiny. Morpheus believes that Neo is the One. “The Oracle prophesied His return, that His coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, and bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those of us who have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix, looking for Him. I believe that search is over….” As in our world, the Oracle (the prophets, the Scriptures) predicts the coming of a Messiah that will free people from the slavery of the Matrix. But we must find the One.
So Neo is brought to the Oracle to see if he is the One. He is brought into a room with other ‘potentials’. They seem to represent other religions/philosophies: a Euro/American girl, two Jewish girls, a child reading an Arabic (Muslim?) book, and a Hindu/Buddhist/Zen boy who tells him: “You can’t bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, try to realize the Truth.” “What Truth?” Neo asks. “There is no spoon,” the child replies. The fact that this is too Zen for some, does not remove it from the actuality that there is a metaphysical element to true spirituality, and to true Christianity. To ignore this, is to give in to the deception of our old life in the Matrix.
The Oracle seems to confirm Neo’s reservation that he is not the One. “Being the One is like being in love. No-one can tell you you’re in love. You just know it, through and through, balls to bone.” Neo is told he has the gift, but he seems to be waiting for something. At some point, he will have to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’ life. “One of you is going to die. Which one, will be up to you. I hate giving good people bad news. But don’t worry about it. As soon as you step outside that door, you’ll start feeling better. You’ll remember you don’t believe in any of this fate crap. You’re in control of your own life. Here, have a cookie….”
Discovering Neo’s true destiny and his role in his new world occupies the rest of the film – and proves to be his greatest adventure. He is also going to learn about the Agents – the Enemy – the demons of the Matrix. But what he thinks he knows about them is nothing, until he actually encounters them face to face. That is the focus of Part Three: Access Complete.
Dave Hart of Sanctuary
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