The Matrix as Messiah Movie

The Matrix - A Cyberpunk Parable?

B. THE PARABLE

4. TRAPS: Contamination, Conspiracy, and Consequences

4a. A Parable of a Parable?

KEY:
M = The Matrix Story
S = Spiritual Parallels

 

The Matrix can also be a parable of a parable!

There are three 'traps' that defeat people:

1. Never coming out of the Matrix, being 'oblivious' to truth, rejecting the truth ("the mind has trouble letting go")

2. Becoming tired of the trials that come with freedom (Cypher is tired)

3. Becoming wrapped up in the temptations the Matrix offers (Mouse is focused on the lady in red)

But a fourth type of person is the successful, faithful person:

4. A person who avoids the traps, perseveres in the war, and frees others.

There is a parable in Matthew chapter 13 that has the same four types! A sower scatters seed on the ground. There are four things that happen to the seed:

1. The seed falls beside the road and the birds take it away. Jesus explains that this is someone who hears the truth and will not receive it, so the birds (the "evil one" vs. 19) come take it away. These are like the people still 'inert' and 'dependent on' the Matrix, who are kept 'oblivious' by the evil Agents.

2. The seed falls on hard, rocky ground. The seed takes a shallow root, but when the heat comes, it dies away. Jesus explains that this is someone who receives the truth with joy at first (like Cypher, who used to love Trinity), but falls away when "affliction or persecution arises", such as Cypher saying, "I'm tired, Trinity. Tired of this war."

3. Thorns choke the seed. Jesus explains that the thorns are worries and deceitful riches of the world. Mouse is distracted by his 'lady in red', and it possibly costs him his life.

4. The seed takes root, and through perseverance is victorious. Neo, Morpheus, Tank, and Trinity all endure pain but are victorious in the end.

We have already studied condition #1 when Morpheus describes the people still in the Matrix. But now let's look in detail at conditions #2 and #3 - the traps that killed Mouse and Cypher.

 
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4b. Mouse

(Mouse represents the 'seed' that was lost to temptations; see part 4a)

M. The food on the Nebuchadnezzar is "everything the body needs", but Mouse does not agree.
S. Mouse is not satisfied with basic necessities. He also wants to fulfill his lusts. He is like the Israelites in the old testament who were tired of manna and craved exotic foods.
 
M. Mouse "wrote the program" for the lady in red; he "designed" her.
S. Sin begins from a person's own lusts. "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust, and when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death" (James 1:15). We see the 'lady in red' do two deadly things: 1) In the simulation, she transforms into an Agent pointing a gun at Neo. 2) The 'lady in red' pinup distracts Mouse, who possibly could have avoided a deathtrap otherwise.
 
M. At the dinner table, Mouse's ears are extremely red.
S. This sly metaphor links Mouse's red ears to the 'lady in red'. We cannot dabble in sin without it infecting us. "...you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness..." (Romans 5:16).
 
M. Mouse tries to make Neo stumble by 'pimping' his sensual creation to Neo. Mouse says, "If you'd like to meet her, I can arrange a much more personalized milieu [setting]." Neo shows no interest in this temptation, keeping his focus on the war rather than using Matrix technology to pleasure himself.
S. What if Neo had allowed himself to become distracted by the virtual pleasures Mouse offered? Perhaps the whole human race might have remained enslaved in the Matrix! "Whoever causes one of these little 'ones' [neo = anagram for 'one'] to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea" (Mark 9:42). Neo demonstrates the focused Christian. "...be all the more diligent to make certain His calling and choosing you [like the chosen 'one'], for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble..." (2 Peter 1:10).
 
M. Mouse tells Neo, "Pay no attention to these hypocrites, Neo. To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human."
S. Mouse uses deceptive language to make his pursuit of pleasure during war seem like a noble statement, while calling others 'hypocrites' for their diligence and restraint. To contrast, Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me," indicating a soldier's life of hardship in service of the Master in the war for truth.
 
M. Mouse's 'lady in red' is possibly the cause of his death. Instead of being alert and focused like Apoc and Switch waiting outside the Hotel, Mouse is relaxed - his feet are propped up - and he is entranced in his own lust for the lady in red. We notice Tank's alarm at the changes in the Matrix. Perhaps the 'lady in red' kept Mouse from being alert enough to avoid the coming trap. Mouse might have possibly noticed a "deja vu" as the trap was setting and gotten out of the building before bricks replaced the exits.
S. In the old testament, king David committed his most famous sins of adultery and murder when instead of going off to war, he stayed behind in Jerusalem and admired Bathsheba as she bathed. David suffered greatly as a consequence of his sins that began with focus on temptation instead of war.
 
M. Just before he dies, Mouse is wearing a black T-shirt with a human skeleton design on it.
S. In addition to foreshadowing his physical death, the skeleton symbolizes a state of vulnerability. A Christian who is focused on lusts is not shielded in the spiritual "armor of God" described in Ephesians 6:10-20. Sin can cause physical death, but sin also brings internal death to the soul (Romans 6:21). Sin does not give life; it creates an unsatisfiable craving that destroys the sinner.

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