| M. Morpheus takes Neo through a simulation of a city
street, telling Neo about the people still in the Matrix. |
| S. God trains a Christian how to operate in the world
but not be like the world. |
| |
| M. Morpheus said earlier that the Matrix is
"control". |
| S. Unbelievers are slaves to Satan's manipulation, the
fallen world system, and sin. |
| |
| M. Morpheus said earlier that "as long as the
Matrix exists, the human race will never be free." |
| S. One day, the fallen world system and sin will be
destroyed as God creates a new heaven, new earth, and perfected bodies for those who
believed in Christ. |
| |
| M. Morpheus says, "The Matrix is a system". |
| S. Scripture describes the fallen world as not merely
the physical planet, but a sin-twisted system of godlessness that permeates everything.
Government, business, education, entertainment, commerce, philosophy - all of it. It is
not the world system as God would have designed it; it is instead the corrupt world system
formed and run by fallen man and the devil. |
| |
| M. Morpheus says, "That system [the Matrix] is our
enemy." |
| S. God has condemned the corrupt world system.
"Now judgment is upon this world..." (John 12:31). |
| |
| M. As Neo looks around, Morpheus points out
"businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters." |
| S. It is not just the blatant sinner who is lost - the
criminal, the whore, etc. Every person is born a sinner, meaning those in all walks of
life, including respectable positions. Social position means nothing in regard to
spiritual position. |
| |
| M. Morpheus says that the people Neo sees all around
are the very "people we are trying to save." |
| S. "Save" is a key word. The Christian must
realize that all who have not trusted in Christ are lost, imprisoned in the 'Matrix' of
the fallen world and personal sin, and are headed for destruction unless they are saved
by an act of faith in Christ. |
| |
| M. Morpheus says that until people are saved from the
Matrix, they are "still part of that system, and that makes them our enemy."
Morpheus will later say, "If you are not one of us, you are one of them." There
is no neutral ground; there are those that are either freed from the Matrix or still
captive within it. |
| S. "Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4). A Christian must understand that God has
condemned the corrupt world system, therefore those who embrace it oppose the God who
condemns it. But, like Morpheus and Neo who are there to save those very 'enemies', a
Christian must also love the lost - even his most spiteful enemies - and work among them
to lead them to salvation from the world and sin through faith in Christ. And as Morpheus
said, there are only two types of people: Those who are saved, and those who are not. |
| |
| M. Morpheus warns, "Most of these people are not
ready to be unplugged." It will take time to convince them. |
| S. A Christian cannot force salvation upon someone. The
lost person must be convicted in his own heart and come to a personal conclusion that he
needs to be saved. But just as Morpheus confirmed to Neo that there was "something
wrong" with the world and offered to show Neo what it was and how to escape it, a
Christian must patiently plant seeds of truth at every opportunity, always leading toward
the light and warning of the darkness. |
| |
| M. Earlier, Morpheus said, "We never free a mind
once it reaches a certain age…the mind has trouble letting go." |
| S. Older people often have trouble finding the
childlike faith necessary to simply receive the gift of salvation in Christ. Jesus said,
"whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at
all." (Mark 10:14). Evangelical statistics confirm that the older a person becomes,
the less likely he or she will be to change spiritual beliefs. |
| |
| M. Morpheus tells Neo that "Many of [the people in
the Matrix] are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight
to protect it." |
| S. This is the great tragedy, that many people do not
desire the truth. Many prefer the pleasures of sin and the comforts of the world.
"And this is the judgment - that the Light [Jesus] is come into the world, but men
loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19; John
9:5). Others want to find security in temporary things and do not want to consider
eternity. Still others do not want to face a truth that is uncomfortable for them, because
truth demands that a person admit his sickness (sin) and thus his need for a cure (faith
in Christ). |
| |
| M. When Morpheus tells Tank to "Freeze it",
notice that every person in the scene is wearing black. |
| S. This visual metaphor emphasizes the dark, sinful
state of the lost people in the world. |
| |
| M. Later, when running from the sentinels
("squiddies"), Trinity tells Neo, "The sewers are all that is left
of [the cities]." |
| S. This is an interesting parallel of the continual
decline of the fallen world system into utter godless depravity - a decline of all
civilization into spiritual sewage. |
|
| M. Agent Smith will later describe the Matrix to
Morpheus by saying, "Have you ever…marveled at…its genius? Billions of
people just living out their lives, oblivious." |
| S. Most people in the world are completely unfocused on
eternity. This is largely due to unbelief, which allows Satan and his demons (like the
Agents who control the Matrix) to continually "blind the minds of the
unbelieving" (2 Corinthians 4:4) about their dire eternal condition, keeping them
wrapped up in busy little temporary lives. |
| |
| M. As a side note about the Matrix, Agent Smith will
later say that the "first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world," but
that "no one would accept the program." Thus the second Matrix was full of
misery and suffering. |
| S. This echoes the story in Genesis, where God created
a perfect world for Adam and Eve, but they rebelled against God, which produced misery and
suffering. (The analogy is imperfect in the film in that the evil Agents created both
versions of the Matrix, whereas in scripture God created the world to be perfect, but man
chose the evil that caused creation to become corrupted into the imperfect current world.) |
