The Matrix And The Gospel
Preaching
Pulpit Science Fiction
(This is a modified version of an essay that was originally published as part of The Immediate Word preaching resource for 18 May 2003. It is used here by permission. Copyright 2003 The Immediate Word/CSS Publishing. Address all correspondence regarding subscription requests to The Immediate Word, 517 South Main Street, P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503, or call 800-241-4056, or visit .)
The biggest religious news, at least of this month, may be the release of the long-anticipated sequel to the 1999 film The Matrix. The Matrix Reloaded, opened on May 15, 2003. Yes, it's still the Easter season and our Sunday readings continue to speak to us about what Jesus' resurrection means. Yes, the Shiite branch of Islam continues to be a powerful influence in post-war Iraq, and there are other important religious news items from throughout the world. But, many people will be more strongly influenced by the views about the nature of reality and the meaning of life in the second movie of the Matrix trilogy than by anything that they're hearing from representatives of organized religion -- and that includes some of the people who will be sitting in the pews on Sunday.
The Matrix films aren't unique in using religious themes and influencing religious views. If you want something lighter, Bruce Almighty will debut on May 23. Here Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, will get to fill in for God (Morgan Freeman) and exercise divine power.
The task of the preacher is to communicate God's Word, law, and gospel, to people in the world in which they live. How are we to do that when their view of the world -- and in fact ours, as well -- is influenced in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by the religious views circulating in the media? These influences are not all bad or all good, and some care is needed in challenging some and using others to reinforce the Christian message.
Preachers want to present the gospel in an up-to-date way, which is one reason why we sometimes use popular films as illustrations. With all our desire to make preaching relevant to what's going on in the world and in the lives of our listeners, however, we have to make sure that we keep restating in clear ways the basic and distinctive teachings of the Christian faith. If we speak only in religious generalities about "God" and "love" then it may be hard for our hearers to distinguish what we're saying from things that they see and hear in popular media, things which may be in some tension with the gospel.
The Matrix films don't use explicit God language but the religious images are pretty obvious. One of the heroes is named Trinity and the last human city holding out against the machines that have enslaved the world is Zion. Keanu Reeves' character, Neo, who has been described in a number of reviews as a "Christ figure," often wears a black cassock-like garment that makes him look for all the world like a Roman Catholic or Anglican priest. There are plenty of other hints and allusions in the film -- not all of them religious -- and I won't spoil your fun in finding some for yourself.
But the religious content goes beyond symbolism. In the Matrix films, the world that most people experience is an illusion, the product of a tremendous computer program. They think that they're living in a society much like ours, but in reality they are stuck in pods and the energy they generate is being used by the machines that have taken over the world after a terrible war. Neo and others who have been freed from the world of the matrix are among the defenders of Zion, but they also have to go back into it in order to free others and fight the agents of the machines if humanity is ever to be saved from its enslavement.
The film is well done and I like it simply as science fiction. (Some of the techno-babble is, however, overdone.) There will be some objection to the violence in the martial arts and chase scenes, but it needs to be remembered that these things are taking place in a computer program rather than the real world. They are not blood and guts scenes, and are so well done that I often felt that I was watching elaborate choreography rather than a typical action film. (The Matrix Reloaded is rated R, but neither the violence nor the sexuality is of a type that would have made PG-13 impossible.)
But what about the religious message? From a Christian standpoint there are some questionable aspects. The idea that the world that we experience is not the true reality has a lot in common with the teachings of the Gnostics who were one of Christianity's main competitors in the early centuries. They held that the material world was the creation of an inferior deity (perhaps the God of the Old Testament), that our souls are trapped in the darkness of this material realm, and that the true God beyond the world sends the redeemer to enlighten people with the knowledge (gnosis) of their situation and thus free their souls and save them from the world. (The article "Gnosticism" by R. McL. Wilson in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, gives further information.)
This contrasts strongly with the Christian belief that the world is the good creation of the God who sent his Son into the world to save human beings from sin in their entire body-soul-spirit reality through faith in his death and resurrection. The Christian hope is the resurrection of the body in a transformed creation, not the salvation of some immaterial part of ourselves from the world.
To put the worst construction on it, the Matrix films might be seen as a kind of cyber-gnosticism, with Neo as an example of the gnostic redeemer myth rather than as a genuine Christ figure. It wouldn't be surprising to encounter something like this in a time when some versions of New-Age thought have a lot of resemblance to classical Gnosticism.
I don't think that it would be fair to the movie to leave it at that, however. The goal of those fighting the matrix isn't simply to get rid of the computerized illusion but also to free people from its bondage and give them full physical life. The Matrix films display no gnostic contempt for physical reality, as some of the scenes set in Zion make clear. We'll have to wait for the final third of the trilogy, scheduled for November, to see how it all turns out.
Meanwhile in our world, there are strong attempts to impose false realities upon people. Perhaps the most pervasive and widely accepted is our whole culture of consumerism that promotes the illusion that people can be happy and secure if they keep accumulating more and more possessions. Various kinds of political and religious propaganda provide other examples. And while Christianity teaches the saving role of faith rather than of knowledge, the latter is not insignificant. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," God declares through Hosea (4:6), and Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32).
Bruce Almighty is not likely to fare very well in comparison with The Matrix and its sequel, at least as far as depth is concerned. Previews showing Bruce using his power to increase his girl friend's breast size and getting his dog to use the toilet aren't promising. But there is a hint that perhaps he's going to find out that there's more to being God than just throwing arbitrary miracles around. You'll have to see the movie when it opens if you want to pursue this. But I wouldn't ignore the film's impact just because it's unsophisticated. In the last generation (1977), George Burns as the deity in Oh, God! was pretty influential in presenting a warmhearted, but rather simple-minded, deism.
How might proclamation this Sunday take some of these matters into account? In the lectionary texts for the Sixth Sunday Of Easter (Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; and John 15:9-17), the most obvious single theme is that of love in the Second Lesson and the Gospel, and that would be a good thing to focus on.
The type of love, agape, of which these texts speak goes much deeper than "Can't we all just get along?" an idea that is encouraged (and, of course, is fine as far as it goes) by films like Oh, God! It is broader than the love connected with sexual attraction. (The love between Neo and Trinity is sexual but isn't limited to that. Their willingness to suffer and die for one another is an important part of the plot.) We know what genuine love is, and therefore can understand Jesus' commandment that we are to "love one another," because "I have loved you" (John 15:12). And that, in turn, is something that flows from the love of Father and Son (15:9-10).
Love, in fact, defines the character of God. "God is love (agape)" (1 John 4:16) was one of the texts for last Sunday and is the background of the reading from 1 John this week. It is, of course, a frequently quoted phrase but its full depth often isn't appreciated. The belief that God is love in God's own being ultimately requires something like a Trinitarian understanding of God. (See, for example, Eberhard JŸngel, God as the Mystery of the World [Eerdmans, 1983].) Thus any representation of God by a single actor, even one as good as Morgan Freeman, is bound to be inadequate. (On the other hand, some of the visual images of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus together in The Matrix Reloaded are intriguing.)
Equally unsatisfactory is any representation of God simply as "the Almighty" without reference to God as love. To play off the idea of Bruce getting to be "almighty" for a day, a preacher might develop a story sermon in which someone has the opportunity to show the love of God in its fullness for a day. That could be introduced with a brief reference to the movie's theme, and hearers wouldn't even need to have seen the movie to get the point.
The fact that the love of God "spills over" from the inner life of God to the world is also important for understanding the goodness of creation over and against gnostic devaluations of it. John 3:16 is, of course, quoted even more often than "God is love." God's love for "the world" means love, first of all, for the world of human beings, a world that is estranged from God by sin but that is still God's good creation. And God's love is not limited to human beings. The thanksgiving at the beginning of Evening Prayer in Lutheran Book of Worship sings simply, "You love your whole creation." At this time of year many churches have a Sunday with some emphasis on care for creation (Earth Sunday, Rogationtide, Stewardship of Creation Sunday, Soil and Water Stewardship Sunday). This week's Psalm 98, in which all the earth is to "break forth into joyous song and sing praises" (v. 4) would fit in with such a theme.
Alternatively, a sermon might speak to some of the illusions that our culture tries to impose on us -- "The one who dies with the most toys wins," "You've got to look out for Number One," "Power grows from the barrel of a gun," and so forth. These aren't as all-encompassing as the false world of the matrix, but are ubiquitous enough to make the analogy worth pursuing. The true reality, the hidden ground of all being, is the Love willing to die for the other. One of the questions that The Matrix Reloaded poses has to do with the nature of power and control. The Christ who saves by letting go (Philippians 2:5-11) is one biblical answer.
The biggest religious news, at least of this month, may be the release of the long-anticipated sequel to the 1999 film The Matrix. The Matrix Reloaded, opened on May 15, 2003. Yes, it's still the Easter season and our Sunday readings continue to speak to us about what Jesus' resurrection means. Yes, the Shiite branch of Islam continues to be a powerful influence in post-war Iraq, and there are other important religious news items from throughout the world. But, many people will be more strongly influenced by the views about the nature of reality and the meaning of life in the second movie of the Matrix trilogy than by anything that they're hearing from representatives of organized religion -- and that includes some of the people who will be sitting in the pews on Sunday.
The Matrix films aren't unique in using religious themes and influencing religious views. If you want something lighter, Bruce Almighty will debut on May 23. Here Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, will get to fill in for God (Morgan Freeman) and exercise divine power.
The task of the preacher is to communicate God's Word, law, and gospel, to people in the world in which they live. How are we to do that when their view of the world -- and in fact ours, as well -- is influenced in subtle and not-so-subtle ways by the religious views circulating in the media? These influences are not all bad or all good, and some care is needed in challenging some and using others to reinforce the Christian message.
Preachers want to present the gospel in an up-to-date way, which is one reason why we sometimes use popular films as illustrations. With all our desire to make preaching relevant to what's going on in the world and in the lives of our listeners, however, we have to make sure that we keep restating in clear ways the basic and distinctive teachings of the Christian faith. If we speak only in religious generalities about "God" and "love" then it may be hard for our hearers to distinguish what we're saying from things that they see and hear in popular media, things which may be in some tension with the gospel.
The Matrix films don't use explicit God language but the religious images are pretty obvious. One of the heroes is named Trinity and the last human city holding out against the machines that have enslaved the world is Zion. Keanu Reeves' character, Neo, who has been described in a number of reviews as a "Christ figure," often wears a black cassock-like garment that makes him look for all the world like a Roman Catholic or Anglican priest. There are plenty of other hints and allusions in the film -- not all of them religious -- and I won't spoil your fun in finding some for yourself.
But the religious content goes beyond symbolism. In the Matrix films, the world that most people experience is an illusion, the product of a tremendous computer program. They think that they're living in a society much like ours, but in reality they are stuck in pods and the energy they generate is being used by the machines that have taken over the world after a terrible war. Neo and others who have been freed from the world of the matrix are among the defenders of Zion, but they also have to go back into it in order to free others and fight the agents of the machines if humanity is ever to be saved from its enslavement.
The film is well done and I like it simply as science fiction. (Some of the techno-babble is, however, overdone.) There will be some objection to the violence in the martial arts and chase scenes, but it needs to be remembered that these things are taking place in a computer program rather than the real world. They are not blood and guts scenes, and are so well done that I often felt that I was watching elaborate choreography rather than a typical action film. (The Matrix Reloaded is rated R, but neither the violence nor the sexuality is of a type that would have made PG-13 impossible.)
But what about the religious message? From a Christian standpoint there are some questionable aspects. The idea that the world that we experience is not the true reality has a lot in common with the teachings of the Gnostics who were one of Christianity's main competitors in the early centuries. They held that the material world was the creation of an inferior deity (perhaps the God of the Old Testament), that our souls are trapped in the darkness of this material realm, and that the true God beyond the world sends the redeemer to enlighten people with the knowledge (gnosis) of their situation and thus free their souls and save them from the world. (The article "Gnosticism" by R. McL. Wilson in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, gives further information.)
This contrasts strongly with the Christian belief that the world is the good creation of the God who sent his Son into the world to save human beings from sin in their entire body-soul-spirit reality through faith in his death and resurrection. The Christian hope is the resurrection of the body in a transformed creation, not the salvation of some immaterial part of ourselves from the world.
To put the worst construction on it, the Matrix films might be seen as a kind of cyber-gnosticism, with Neo as an example of the gnostic redeemer myth rather than as a genuine Christ figure. It wouldn't be surprising to encounter something like this in a time when some versions of New-Age thought have a lot of resemblance to classical Gnosticism.
I don't think that it would be fair to the movie to leave it at that, however. The goal of those fighting the matrix isn't simply to get rid of the computerized illusion but also to free people from its bondage and give them full physical life. The Matrix films display no gnostic contempt for physical reality, as some of the scenes set in Zion make clear. We'll have to wait for the final third of the trilogy, scheduled for November, to see how it all turns out.
Meanwhile in our world, there are strong attempts to impose false realities upon people. Perhaps the most pervasive and widely accepted is our whole culture of consumerism that promotes the illusion that people can be happy and secure if they keep accumulating more and more possessions. Various kinds of political and religious propaganda provide other examples. And while Christianity teaches the saving role of faith rather than of knowledge, the latter is not insignificant. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," God declares through Hosea (4:6), and Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32).
Bruce Almighty is not likely to fare very well in comparison with The Matrix and its sequel, at least as far as depth is concerned. Previews showing Bruce using his power to increase his girl friend's breast size and getting his dog to use the toilet aren't promising. But there is a hint that perhaps he's going to find out that there's more to being God than just throwing arbitrary miracles around. You'll have to see the movie when it opens if you want to pursue this. But I wouldn't ignore the film's impact just because it's unsophisticated. In the last generation (1977), George Burns as the deity in Oh, God! was pretty influential in presenting a warmhearted, but rather simple-minded, deism.
How might proclamation this Sunday take some of these matters into account? In the lectionary texts for the Sixth Sunday Of Easter (Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; and John 15:9-17), the most obvious single theme is that of love in the Second Lesson and the Gospel, and that would be a good thing to focus on.
The type of love, agape, of which these texts speak goes much deeper than "Can't we all just get along?" an idea that is encouraged (and, of course, is fine as far as it goes) by films like Oh, God! It is broader than the love connected with sexual attraction. (The love between Neo and Trinity is sexual but isn't limited to that. Their willingness to suffer and die for one another is an important part of the plot.) We know what genuine love is, and therefore can understand Jesus' commandment that we are to "love one another," because "I have loved you" (John 15:12). And that, in turn, is something that flows from the love of Father and Son (15:9-10).
Love, in fact, defines the character of God. "God is love (agape)" (1 John 4:16) was one of the texts for last Sunday and is the background of the reading from 1 John this week. It is, of course, a frequently quoted phrase but its full depth often isn't appreciated. The belief that God is love in God's own being ultimately requires something like a Trinitarian understanding of God. (See, for example, Eberhard JŸngel, God as the Mystery of the World [Eerdmans, 1983].) Thus any representation of God by a single actor, even one as good as Morgan Freeman, is bound to be inadequate. (On the other hand, some of the visual images of Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus together in The Matrix Reloaded are intriguing.)
Equally unsatisfactory is any representation of God simply as "the Almighty" without reference to God as love. To play off the idea of Bruce getting to be "almighty" for a day, a preacher might develop a story sermon in which someone has the opportunity to show the love of God in its fullness for a day. That could be introduced with a brief reference to the movie's theme, and hearers wouldn't even need to have seen the movie to get the point.
The fact that the love of God "spills over" from the inner life of God to the world is also important for understanding the goodness of creation over and against gnostic devaluations of it. John 3:16 is, of course, quoted even more often than "God is love." God's love for "the world" means love, first of all, for the world of human beings, a world that is estranged from God by sin but that is still God's good creation. And God's love is not limited to human beings. The thanksgiving at the beginning of Evening Prayer in Lutheran Book of Worship sings simply, "You love your whole creation." At this time of year many churches have a Sunday with some emphasis on care for creation (Earth Sunday, Rogationtide, Stewardship of Creation Sunday, Soil and Water Stewardship Sunday). This week's Psalm 98, in which all the earth is to "break forth into joyous song and sing praises" (v. 4) would fit in with such a theme.
Alternatively, a sermon might speak to some of the illusions that our culture tries to impose on us -- "The one who dies with the most toys wins," "You've got to look out for Number One," "Power grows from the barrel of a gun," and so forth. These aren't as all-encompassing as the false world of the matrix, but are ubiquitous enough to make the analogy worth pursuing. The true reality, the hidden ground of all being, is the Love willing to die for the other. One of the questions that The Matrix Reloaded poses has to do with the nature of power and control. The Christ who saves by letting go (Philippians 2:5-11) is one biblical answer.
