| M. As Thomas ascends the stairs to meet Morpheus, we
notice the black and white tiled floor. |
| S. A lost man must make a black-and-white choice when
he faces God. Light or darkness. Truth or lies. Faith or unbelief. Christ's love or God's
wrath. Salvation or damnation. There is no neutral ground, no 'gray'. |
|
| M. Just outside Morpheus' door, Trinity advises Thomas:
"Be honest. He knows more than you can imagine." |
| S. For this moment, Morpheus can represent God (after
all, lightning flashes when he is introduced, and the chairs in his room do have lion's
heads on them – grin.) In order to find truth, a man must be truthful with himself
and God. "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him; to all who call upon Him in
truth." (Psalm 145:18). The man who hides his sin will not find truth.
(Psalm 66:18) Salvation involves being transparent with God and being brutally honest
about your condition. (In my case, it felt like swallowing an apple whole. Some truth
hurts.) |
|
| M. Morpheus tells Thomas, "You have the look of a
man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not
far from the truth." |
| S. Being 'awake' is a scriptural metaphor for being
saved; being 'asleep' is a metaphor for being lost. (See the scene at Thomas' apartment
for more.) |
|
| M. Morpheus tells Thomas, "Let me tell you why
you're here. You're here because you know…feel…that there's something wrong with
the world…like a splinter in your mind..." |
| S. A lost man nearing salvation has become aware of sin
in self and the world. |
|
| M. Morpheus prompts Thomas to verbalize his
convictions. "Do you know what I'm talking about?" asks Morpheus. "The
Matrix." Thomas answers. |
| S. (See the prior 'dance club' segment about promptings
to verbalize convictions.) |
|
| M. Morpheus confirms the existence of the Matrix, and
directly offers to show Neo what it is. |
| S. At some point, the seeker finds the direct source of
an Answer – scripture, an 'evangelist', etc. – that confirms his convictions
that there is indeed something wrong and offers the exact solution for coming to the
Truth. |
|
| M. Morpheus describes the Matrix to Thomas. "It is
everywhere" - outside, inside, in all walks of life. In one of the most scriptural
statements of the film, Morpheus concludes that the Matrix "is the world that has
been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." |
| S. The Matrix is like the condemned world system that
resulted from man's original sin. We are completely immersed in that world's secular flows
– politics, materialism, entertainment, pop culture, etc. Just as the machines and
Agents control the Matrix, Satan and the sinful state of man create and pollute the
systems and values of the world. This fallen world saturates our senses and trumpets
itself, saying that it is all there is, the here and now, the visible. It is a vast, busy
lie that obscures and distracts from the truth of eternal spiritual things beyond. |
|
| M. "What truth?" asks Thomas. Morpheus then
tells Thomas, "You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into
bondage..." |
| S. Every human descended from Adam and Eve inherits a
sinful nature (Romans 5:12-21). Because this nature is inherited, a human is considered
sinful from the beginning of his life. As the Psalmist says, "I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:6). A lost man remains a
"slave to sin" (Romans 5:17) until he is set free by faith in "Jesus, who
gave Himself for our sins so He might rescue us from this present evil world…"
(Galatians 1:4). A lost man is in bondage to the fallen world until he is reborn
spiritually in Christ. "He that is born of God overcomes the world." (I John
4:5). |
|
| M. Morpheus introduces the final moment of truth. He
says, "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for
yourself." |
| S. A saved person is a 'new creature' in God, with a
living, fresh spirit from God. An 'old' creature cannot understand what being 'new' is
until he actually becomes 'new'. It would be like trying to describe to a
caterpillar how it is to be a butterfly. The only way the caterpillar could fully
understand would be to enter a cocoon (similar to an 'old' creature being crucified,
buried, and risen in Christ through faith) and exit a new and different creature. |
| It takes faith to cross this final gap. All of the
tangible proofs in the world may point the way, but will not solve the problem, for the
spiritual things are not tangible. Nobody can be saved just by listening to teaching about
how to be saved, just as a sick person cannot be healed by only hearing about medicine.
The only way to find the truth is to take a step of faith based on inward convictions and
outward evidences. |
| Imagine the difficulty of describing chocolate ice
cream to a child raised in a tent in the Sahara desert - a child who has perhaps never
felt something cold, nor tasted chocolate! The child could see pictures, and hear
testimony from multiple witnesses for years. This evidence might convict the child that
ice cream is a good thing - but the only way to have that child fully understand would be
for him to eat a sample! "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8).
Seeing requires tasting. (When I worked in impoverished areas in Haiti, we drove to the
mountains one day and purchased chocolate ice cream - for ten dollars a half-gallon! The
people tasted it for the first time and loved it!) |
|
| M. In a moment thick with tension, Morpheus warns
Thomas, "This is your last chance." |
| S. Even though God is rich in patience and love, there
will eventually come a last chance for every person. "The Lord is not slow about
keeping His promise [to come again]…but He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to
perish, but all to come to repentance. But the [judgment] Day of the Lord WILL
come…" (2 Peter 3:4 and 9). "NOW is the day of salvation…" (2
Corinthians. 6:2) In His earthly ministry, Jesus warned the wicked leaders that he would
not always be present at their convenience: "Jesus said, 'For a little while longer I
am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me, and will not find
Me…" (John 7:33). "My Spirit will not strive with man forever…"
(Genesis 6:3). |
|
| M. Morpheus offers the most important choice of all to
Thomas by offering a blue pill in his left hand and a red pill in his right hand. |
| S. The red pill can represent the blood of Christ. This
saving gift is freely offered by God to man, just as Morpheus offers it freely to Neo. The
red pill is the 'right' way to go; thus it is in the 'right' hand while the blue pill is
in the left. In another interesting parallel of right and left, Jesus described the final
judgment at God's throne, where believers are put on the right side of God to be eternally
blessed, and unbelievers are directed to the left side to be eternally punished (Matthew
25:31-46). |
| The blue pill has many metaphorical qualities to adapt.
Deep blue can suggest nighttime and dreaming, indicating the 'sleep' of lies and illusion
that is associated with being an unbeliever. Blue is darker than red, showing the contrast
of light and darkness. There is the popular cliché of "having the blues" - in
other words, experiencing sadness, depression, and heartache instead of happiness. The
blue pill means illusion, darkness, and heartache. |
|
| M. "After this there is no turning back,"
says Morpheus. To take the blue pill means to "wake up in your bed and believe
whatever you want to believe." To take the red pill means to enter the Truth. As
Morpheus says, "All I'm offering is the truth, nothing more…" As Morpheus
will say twice later, "I can only show you the door – but you have to
walk through it." Neo must now choose to act – to take a real action
based on his convictions, and enter through that open 'door'. He must receive
the gift that Morpheus offers - just looking at the red pill won't help. |
| S. This is the climactic all-essential 'step of faith'
for the sinner (so it will also get a bit more explanation – it is the centerpiece of
Christianity!) Scriptures and truthful people can point out the 'door' (Jesus said,
"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved…" - John
10:9), but each person must then take action to enter that door in a
personal transaction of faith between he and Christ. Simply understanding that the door is
there does not mean a person has entered it. As scripture says (James 2:14), even Satan
believes in God. So mere understanding alone is not enough to save, no more than
understanding what medicine can do means you have taken it. There must be an act of
trusting. Christ died to pay for our sins with his red blood (like the red pill); a person
must make an act of trust in that atoning blood sacrifice to be freed from sin.
"Righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Romans
3:22). "…being justified through His blood" (Romans 5:8,9). |
| To take the blue pill means to remain in death, as
Morpheus says, "the story ends". To "believe whatever you want to
believe" saves nobody. A person may feel good as he deceives himself with comforting
lies, or even challenging lies. But lies are lies, and there is only one Truth. Had Neo
rejected that 'one way' to truth and taken the blue pill, he would have remained a slave
of the Matrix no matter what else he believed, and eventually he would have died there.
The unbelieving sinner will physically die in his sins also, but then suffer the
"second death" (Revelation 20:14) in the eternal, fiery justice of God against
sin, having rejected Christ's blood as a freely available payment for that sin penalty.
"He who has the Son has the life, He who does not have the Son of God does not have
the life." (1 John 5:11-13). The one who "believes in the Son has eternal
life", but the one who does not remains under the "wrath of God" (John
3:18, 36). |
| Many people allow pride to blind them to the costly
Gift of love that God is offering them. Sadly, they angrily label God's wrath against
their sin as "unfair", instead of focusing on the fact that God gave His Son's
own life (what more could God have done?) to make a free, cleansing 'red pill' available
to all takers. Those who hope to stand at judgment and accuse Christ of lacking love will
be silenced simply by seeing the Judge's scarred hands – pierced in the ultimate,
brutal sacrifice of His own life on a cross to offer them salvation by a simple act of
faith in Him. |
| Which available pill are you focused on? The blue? Or
the Red? |
