Last time we began with mentioning the movie The Matrix.

Our prior discussion of the wonders and complexity of this physical world, of nature and especially biology, and that all of this points to something greater, to Someone greater – left us once again with the unsettling reality that on most days we don’t think of the larger things, because we are so consumed with the details of our lives, and truly, with just ourselves.

On most days our thoughts and actions are constrained to this physical reality we live in, our work, our family, our friends, and all of our activities. We may care a great deal about many things in this life, good things, and especially about the people in our lives. Caring for them and loving them.

But seldom do we remember that we would not even know how to love others, or have even thought of it, if God had not placed this feeling and this desire in our hearts. Just like we would not understand goodness and justice and mercy, and at our better moments, be drawn to these things, if He had not been the author of this life and our hearts and minds.
The ultimate question for all of us just might be – Is there more? Is there more than just the concrete and tangible world we live in?

Another way to ask the same question is to ask the question I stressed to two of my grandchildren recently – “Just ask yourselves . . . where did all of this come from? Did it not have to come from . . . something, or Someone?”

We had been talking about the theory of evolution that had been taught in school, that it was just a theory — but it never had anything to say about where matter originally came from, and especially, the first living cell.

“Is there more? And . . . would you like to see it?”

These are the very questions that the character Morpheus asks the character Neo, in the movie The Matrix. In that movie, 200 or so years in the past, the Artificial Intelligence that humans created, somehow came to life, became autonomous; and then decided to wipe out humanity so they could exist on their own.

It’s interesting, that in the great majority of AI futuristic movies I’ve seen, this is exactly what happens. The creation somehow becomes autonomous, and then not only decides it wants to be in charge, but also decides to destroy its creator. But this shouldn’t surprise us, for this is exactly what happened in the very first story, in Genesis chapter 3. We have never tried to destroy God outright, but many of us have succeeded in erasing Him out of our consciousness, which is really the same thing.

In The Matrix, Neo has had a sneaking suspicion that there is something more than the life he has always known, he just doesn’t know what it is. Like many of us, at some point in our lives we come to feel, or hope, there’s more to this life than we’ve always known. More than just this physical, material existence. Something greater. Something better. Something enduring.

For us, this “more” is the fact that God is the alpha and the omega, that He created everything, including us, and that life can never work the way it should unless we acknowledge Him for who He is, and then dedicate our lives to following Him.

For Neo, this “more” is the fact that the world he has always known is not even a real world, but just a virtual reality created by the AI that came to life in that world.
In an even more strange twist in the plot of this movie, after wiping out most of humanity and destroying most of the surface of the earth, this AI decided to grow humans as a “crop.” They artificially inseminated them, placed them in little chambers, and submerged them in some kind of fluid, all for the purpose of drawing the biochemical energy out of their bodies. Evidentially, this biochemical energy was a very good way to create the electricity they needed to power themselves.

And so, all of these humans, millions of them it seems, have just laid there, asleep, their whole lives, while energy is sucked out of them. The AI must have assumed that their “crop” would be more content to just lie still if they had a very compelling dream to preoccupy them. This dream is the virtual reality the AI created. It is called the Matrix. It is the world as it was in the 1990’s or so, before it was ever destroyed.

And so, Neo, and everyone else, who had been artificially conceived in this way, have never been awake, truly, one second of their entire lives. But they all have a “life” in that virtual reality world, have names, have jobs, have families, and live moment to moment in that “world.” If the AI could have its way, that would never change.

But there have always been a small number of humans who survived the AI war on earth some two hundred years ago. Their descendants, in the thousands or so, live in an underground city named Zion. And they have been fighting back, trying to destroy the AI. Morpheus is one of their generals.

And so, he comes to Neo in the virtual reality world he lives in; the rebels have figured out a way to do that. This little detail might be the greatest leap of all for this story, but hey, it needs to be interesting. Morpheus somehow knows that Neo could be “the one” who finally figures out how to defeat the AI, that is a thousand times more powerful and capable than the rebels. It is not that different a scenario from Christ defeating evil itself.

Morpheus tells Neo there is more than he has ever known. He has felt it, and sensed it. There has always been “something wrong with the world.” Morpheus tells him this inkling has been like a splinter in his mind, driving him mad.

Even more incredible, Morpheus tells him that everything he has always known is a lie that has been pulled over his eyes to blind him to the truth; that he was born into a prison.
If the symbolism here is blowing you away, it should.

And then, in one of the most pivotal moments in all of cinema, in all of storytelling; he gives Neo a choice. He presents him with a blue pill and a red pill. He can take the blue pill if he wants, if all of this is a little too scary and he wants to forget about all of it and go back to sleep in the only reality he has ever known. Or . . . if he is a little braver, he can take the red pill and Morepheus will show him just how deep this rabbit hole goes.

And then he says, “Remember. All I’m telling you is the truth.”

Good place to stop, huh?

Next time.
Sam