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read between the lines
Friday, May 05, 2006
[trinity:] "i'm in.."
"First of all...don't take the symbolism and the parable too far. It goes pretty DARN far, but every parable has its limits. Here's my take:
Morpheus, throughout most of the movie, is John the Baptist. He is the one who points to Neo, who heralds his coming, just as John pointed to Christ. He could be the Holy Spirit in places, as he teaches Neo to trust the Truth. But his main role is that of John the Baptist.
The Matrix is the world...the world that is apart from God. Cypher is, of course, Satan or at least an agent of Satan. Perhaps the main computer that is running 'the world' in The Matrix is Satan...
Neo, through most of the movie, is the Messiah figure, but he is also us in some ways.
I think the main lesson in the movie is faith... "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1). Neo's problem is he is so blinded by the lies of the Matrix (the world) that he can't put his faith in the Truth, that Truth that Morpheus refers to when he says, "I'm trying to free your mind."
Remember, we are told in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Neo must renew his mind, change his thinking, before he will be able to defy the laws of physics that bind him in the physical world, since he is now doing 'spiritual' battle.
Neo struggles with this just as we all struggle to trust that God knows what He's doing with our lives and that we can follow Him even when we don't know where He is leading. Think of Abraham...first he was promised that he would be the father of nations. Then he is told to kill his son, Isaac. Now, how is God going to fulfill that promise if Isaac is dead? But Abraham doesn't ask. He simply obeys and his faith is rewarded. He knows God will still fulfill his promise and he knows that he must do as God requests. He trusts God completely, even though it didn't make sense to him.
We, too, can trust God completely. But convincing ourselves to DO IT is the hard part! The main lesson for me in The Matrix was one of putting my faith completely in the Truth and trusting completely with my whole life. Neo had to put his life on the line, fully trusting the Truth he had been taught, even when it did not correspond to the laws of physics he had learned all his life. In the same way, I can put my whole life on the line, fully trusting that God will work out the details even when they don't make sense and things seem hopeless.
Don't misunderstand me...I'm still working on living the lesson, but at least I have a fabulously cool story to help me!
In the Bible study my husband and I teach, we often talk to the students about unplugging from the world and trusting God's truth rather than the truth that the world wants us to believe, like relationships in real life should be anything similar to relationships on TV and that living for our own pleasure is not just ok but is our right as human beings.
And about that spoon thing...I think, when Neo repeats "There is no spoon" he's focusing his mind on the Truth that he can't see rather than the physical things in the world that appear to be real and to make sense. I have heard many people say that this is an Eastern philosophy that Christians should ignore, but I disagree. I think it is a surprisingly good way to remember the lesson of The Matrix...the Truth is not always visible and in front of you. But it WILL always win.
-Kathy"
dug this out of my old archives of stuff on the matrix (yes i have a whole data-full, especially on the 1st movie). found it to be relevant to where i am at this point in time in my life (as in her talk about the faith thing, etc.)...though i kinda disagree with the christian allegories alluded to the main characters (it gets more and more unlikely especially when you watch the 2nd and 3rd movie).
speaking of which, it's amazing that after all these years people are still talking about the concepts brought forth in the matrix on the forums. and i, after watching it the other night, had the same opinion too.
[notice: let me first clarify that this whole post refers to the 1st matrix movie. let's leave out the 2nd and 3rd movies, cos they seem to be from a totally different angle, like not even related to the 1st movie...and anyway they keep killing off the main characters..and i was disappointed to find out that even morpheus suffered the same fate in path of neo, which is a game whose storyline picks off from where the movie ended.]
the matrix was truly the defining movie in my life. in my younger days i have watched the thing like a million, gazillion times. more times in my life than i have watched any other movie, not even lotr (so many times in fact, until there was a point in time i could practically memorise the storyboard sequence as if i was the one who directed the thing).
it was the movie that gave me my first taste of philosophy and it really challenged people to think out of the box. i have never seen any other movie that made people seriously question the meaning of life and the existence of it (thus leading to questions about god and whether god is real) after getting out from the cinemas.
and returning back to the forums, i'm almost not surprised to find people still actually posting their thoughts on the matter. even when i watched the movie the other night, it still retained its freshness in my mind. which is really quite for a feat for a movie to accomplish, the fact that a movie can leave so much more of an impact than just entertain one for a few hours.
i guess it's probably because the topic itself never goes stale throughout the centuries. from augustine's time until now people have been asking the "what is the meaning of life?" question until now. and this movie highlighted that pursuit and executed it in such a non-cheesy way that it caused people to really use their grey matter.
i also realised one thing. aside from the online forums, there is only 1 person i can carry a conversation-cum-debate about the conspiracies and theories in the matrix. just one, sadly. it's like the others lack the stimulation to engage in lengthy discussion on these in-depth topics. we need more "thinking" people in this world lah. i'm not saying we need more rocket scientists, but i do think the mind was meant to engage in more than just on-the-surface talks and what-you-see-is-what-you-get mentality.
but that's just my opinion.
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