There are three types of "reality" portrayed here in the script. One is where most of mankind is found, bound up in an artificial world that dictates their lives to them. The second is the A I (artificial intelligence), a super computer that has taken power over mankind and made them slaves. The third type are those who have escaped the control of this evil, life-robbing system and have a permanent home in a place called Zion.e
While the battle was going on between man and the super computer that was trying to take over the world, the earth was turned into a waste place, totally uninhabitable due to nuclear winter. Most of humanity is entombed in this vast computer controlled machine, having their lives sucked out of them as its energy source. The people who are free are in Zion, where it is still warm near the core of the earth. A few are on board vessels that travel below the devastated cities in old sewer systems, seeking ways to rescue those who are trapped in the AI. The vessel featured in this movie is called the Nebuchadnezzar.
The writer of letter penned to the Hebrews wrote:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. (Hebrews 12:22-25, NKJV).
We are the saints of God, called out of the mind numbing world that has been plunged into spiritual darkness by Satan (the A I) unto a new city called Mount Zion or the New Jerusalem. We are called to His Godly perfection by the resurrection power that works in us through Jesus Christ. Not everyone will obey His upward call to leave this world and its delusions behind. We who have broken out of that system of darkness by the power of God's Holy Spirit have been called to help free those who are still captives in it. In this way we are like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar. As Jesus told His disciples:
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8, NKJV).
The Matrix has a high tech motif, with a cast that includes a type of Christ, a prophetess, a shepherding elder and even a Judas figure. The plot centers around a plan to draw one man, Thomas A. Anderson, or "Neo" as he is known in the world of computer hackers, out of this world system into the REAL world. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar set Neo free of the A I and the delusion of the Matrix so that he can take his place as an important part of delivering the rest of the world from the clutches of this wicked system.
Some Christian writers cast Neo as a Messiah figure, but I see him more as a fore-runner. He is a type of everyone who walks in Christ and takes up his true inheritance as a fellow heir, accepting all the privileges and responsibilities in this world and in the next. There is a Christian underground that communicates over the Internet, sharing with one another the truths that are setting them free of the systems of men, be they of the world or the worldly church. These are "hacking" their way out of the blindness and deception that has held so many captive for the last 1700 years.
The opening scene of the movie shows a green screen computer monitor flowing with numbers. The Matrix agents are busily trying to trace a phone call between a woman named Trinity and the traitorous Cypher, who has set her up to be caught. Like the whole crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, she is an experienced computer hacker, senses that the call is being traced, and hangs up.
Trinity is in a dingy room in a hotel called The Heart of the City. She has been using her computer to watch Neo in his fantasy world. The crew is planning to extract him from his false life of lies. This is a type of Satan's control of the minds of the people of this world, blinding them to the truth.
Satan took the minds of man captive when he got man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by promising they would be like God if they did. The captive humans in the Matrix are all fed a programmed lifestyle they really think they live. In reality, they are laying in vats of liquid with cables and tubes plugged into their bodies, being used as an energy source for A I, until they are used up and discarded like so many old "copper top" batteries. With all this in mind, consider Paul's words to the Corinthian Church:
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:1-7, NKJV).
Meanwhile back in The Heart of the City Hotel where rooms can be rented by the hour, Trinity is about to arrested by the police who have been sent out to take her back captive into the A I system or kill her in the process. After a harrowing escape she manages to get to a phone booth and is beamed through the phone lines back to the Nebuchadnezzar just in time.
The Prince of this world would rather take us back under his power so he can continue to use us, but if he can't delude us with his lies, he will try to kill us, just as he has done with everyone who has become a real treat to his kingdom. There are thousands of martyrs who have given up their lives, refusing to go back under his control in his system of lies.
The enemy has placed his agents, like the one here called Cypher, in our fellowships. Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the wheat and the tares and the separating of the sheep from the goats. Paul also spoke of these when he wrote to the Galatians:
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. (Galatians 2:1-5, NKJV).
The movie continues with the next scene opening in Neo's apartment, a bachelor pad strewn with computer cables and hardware. Neo is short for neophyte or new believer. He is trying to hack into reality and find the truth. He spends hours researching the captain of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, a man named Morpheus. He wants to make contact but does not know how. He has come to the attention of the rescue ship's crew and made Morpheus believe that this one, Thomas Anderson, is "the one."
Neo has dozed off in front of his computer while researching Morpheus and the screen goes blank. While his head is on the desk, the words appear on the screen, "Wake up, Neo! Neo, the Matrix has you." It is the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar trying to make contact with him.
As he awakens and wipes the sleep out of his eyes, the screen reads, "Follow the white rabbit." Neo tries to clear the screen but his keyboard has no effect. Then the screen reads, "Knock, knock!" just before there is a knock at his door. He nearly jumps out of his skin in shock. At the door is a group of people who have come to buy some of his boot legged software. They invite him to unplug for a while and go party with them. At first he refuses, but as one of the girls turns away he sees a white rabbit tattooed on her shoulder. He decides to follow the prompting that appeared on his computer and follows them.
In the next scene, Neo stands alone in a wild party, feeling out of place, wondering what is going on. Trinity walks up to him and makes the first personal contact. She says to him, "Hello, Neo. I know a lot about you. I've been wanting to meet you for some time." He is totally shocked when she tells him that her name is Trinity, the same one the cracked the IRS D-base, another hacker like himself. She was rescued out of the Matrix and is now about to be part of his rescue as well. Their dialogue is as follows:
TRINITY: "Right now, all I can tell you, is that you are in danger. I brought you here to warn you."
NEO: "Of what?"
TRINITY: "They're watching you, Neo."
NEO: "Who is?"
TRINITY: "Please. Just listen. I know why you're here, Neo. I know why you left your family and your friends why you left your home to come to this city. You're looking for him. I know because I came looking for the same thing, but when he found me he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did. It is a hacker's question."
NEO: "What is the Matrix?"
TRINITY: "When I asked him, he said that no one could ever be told the answer to that question. They have to see it to believe it. The answer is out there, Neo. It's looking for you and it will find you, if you want it to."
Jesus told those who would be His disciples that they must leave family, friends and home behind to follow Him. Neo has left all to find the truth about the Matrix. Like Abraham, he has gone to another land to find that city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He knows that the natural is not the way it really is and has been trying to locate Morpheus in hopes of finding out what the Matrix is. I see a similarity between the name Mopheus and the Greek word metamorpho, which means transformation. The Creator is seeking to extract each of us from the world system level and transform us into sons of God. Jesus is the prototype. As apostle Paul wrote,
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (metamorpho) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2, NKJV).
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29, NKJV).
The next day Neo is sitting at his desk at work, staring a at a blank computer screen, still stunned by the exchange with Trinity the night before. Just then a FedEx man comes to his cubicle and hands him a package. He opens it and out falls a cell phone which rings at that moment. Shocked, he answers and this is the exchange:
NEO: "Hello?"
MORPHEUS: "Hello, Neo. Do you know who this is?"
NEO: "Morpheus…"
MORPHEUS: "I've been looking for you, Neo. I don't know if you're ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, we have run out of time. They're coming for you, Neo. And I'm not sure what they're going to do."
NEO: "Who's coming for me?"
MORPHEUS: "Stand up and see for yourself."
Here, Neo stands up and looks toward the elevator, only to find the agents of the A I and the police heading his way. Morpheus tries to show him how to escape by crawling along a ledge on the outside of the high rise building, but Neo is afraid of heights, and so he gives up and is taken to be interrogated. There the agents put a bug in him and turn him loose. They will track him without him knowing it, hoping he will lead them to Morpheus.
During the interrogation, Agent Smith, the chief villain, says to Neo, "We know that you have been contacted by a certain individual. A man who calls himself Morpheus. Whatever you think you know about this man is irrelevant to the fact that he is wanted for acts of terrorism in more countries than any other man in the world. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous man alive."
When a person allows himself be transformed by the Spirit of God, he is no longer of this world. The world under Satan knows that and sees him as an enemy. This is why true followers of Christ are targets in this world and the worldly church system. Jesus put it this way,
For he who is not against us is on our side. (Mark 9:40, NKJV).
In Galatians, Paul wrote about the those under the law persecuting those who follow the Spirit and the war that goes on between them.
Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. (Galatians 4:21-29, NASB).
The next morning after the agents turn Neo loose, he gets a phone call from Morpheus, who says, "You're the One, Neo. You see, you may have spent the last few years looking for me, but I've spent most of my life looking for you." We often hear a Christian testify that they "found Jesus." In reality, God chases us down and finds us. Isaiah wrote:
I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by My name. (Isaiah 65:1, NKJV).
The next night the crew of the Nebachudnezzar meets Neo inside the Matrix on a rainy city street where they debug him and take him to Morpheus. The dialogue which follows is very interesting.
MORPHEUS: "I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?"
NEO: "You could say that."
MORPHEUS: "I can see it in your eyes. 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. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Can you tell me, Neo, why are you here?
NEO: "You're Morpheus, you're a legend. Most hackers would die to meet you."
MORPHEUS: "Yes. Thank you. But I think we both know there's more to it than that. Do you believe in fate, Neo?"
NEO: "No."
MORPHEUS: "Why not?"
NEO: "Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life."
MORPHEUS: "I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know you can't explain but you feel it. You've felt it your whole life, felt that something is wrong with the world. You don't know what, but it's there like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
NEO: "The Matrix?"
MORPHEUS: "Do you want to know what it is?"
Neo swallows hard and nods
MORPHEUS: "The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You can see it out your window or on your television. You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
NEO: "What truth?"
MORPHEUS: "That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You shall become free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." (John 8:31-36, NASB).
As the scene continues:
Morpheus opens his hands. In the right is a red pill. In the left, a blue pill.
MORPHEUS: "This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Neo feels the smooth skin of the capsules, the moisture growing in his palms
MORPHEUS: "Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more."
Neo opens his mouth and swallows the red pill.
MORPHEUS: "Follow me."
In this discourse there are a number of similarities with how we come to Christ. First, we are introduced to the idea that there is another world that we are not part of, the kingdom of God. Often we heard Him calling us during our lives, but didn't recognize His voice. He saves some from death by miraculous acts. Others have a perception of a spiritual presence in their lives. Some have a great emptiness in themselves that they try to fill with the things that the world has to offer, but nothing satisfies.
When the spiritual world starts to open up, most of us feel like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole into a new world we have never experienced before. When we become aware that we must give up control of our lives, we are not sure that is a step we want to take. To enter fully into the kingdom of God it is necessary for us to give all control over to Jesus, for He is the Head of His body, the called out ones who believe.
It takes some of us years to understand just how thorough a delusion the enemy has woven into our lives. As Morpheus puts it, "The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You can see it out your window or on your television. You feel it when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
It is easy to see the difference between the lusts of this world system and those things that are spiritual. We can see it all around us in the television, at work, and in the oppressive tax system of social government. But it takes most of us many years to see the difference between the Matrix in the church systems and the real kingdom of God. The church systems of today are not the same as the infant church set in motion by the Spirit in the New Testament. Anyone who abides in that system are soon taken captive to its desires for its own purposes. It takes many years and much revelation from God before captivity to this religious system is broken.
Morpheus here is a type of Christ. He is calling us to come out of all forms of bondage and be free in Him. As Morpheus explains to Neo, "You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
Jesus came to set the captives free. Much to the chagrin of the religious system of that time, Jesus was not interested in kicking the Romans out of Israel, but setting the people free of religious tyranny. Of Roman's heavy taxation Jesus said, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." When speaking of the religious leaders he was more specific:
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it."
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, "Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it." Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets."
Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? (Matthew 23:13-33, NKJV).
Yes, like Morpheus told Neo, we have to see it for ourselves. Many of us have been beaten up for years by those in control of the church because we have dared to let the Spirit of Christ become manifest in us. Controllers are always threatened by the freedom of the Spirit as He blows through their carefully orchestrated meetings. It is the grace of God that keeps us at odds with this system, locked outside their inner circles, for He is calling us outside the gates of Christendom unto Jesus who suffered outside the religious camp of the Jews. It is there He has set His spiritual table for us to feast from (See Hebrews 13:10-14).
The pill that Neo took that led him to freedom was red. Jesus purchased our freedom by the shedding of His blood, and we must follow Jesus if we are to find our total freedom. Jesus said,, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you can not be my disciples."
After Neo swallows the red pill, Morpheus goes on to tell Neo, "The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location."
NEO: "What does that mean?"
CYPHER: "It means buckle up, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye."
Once we have truly been born again, we are no longer of this world or its sin nature. We become aliens and pilgrims in a strange land. We have rejected the control of this world, and it rejects us.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. (Romans 6:1-8, NKJV).
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10, NKJV).
In the next scene we see the Matrix rejecting Neo's body and flushing him down the sewer. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar rescues him, just like Jesus the good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one. Where did the church get the idea that people should come into one of their buildings to get saved?
On that day Jesus went out of the house, and was sitting by the sea. And great multitudes gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole multitude was standing on the beach. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow. (Matthew 13:1-3, NASB).
We also need to follow His example and go out of the house to where the starving people are found.
Next we see Neo waking up in the Nebuchadnezzar with body and soul together for the first time, asking Morpheus, "Am I dead?"
MORPHEUS: "Far from it."
NEO: "Why do my eyes hurt?
MORPHEUS: "It is the first time you have used them."
How true! While in the world and its worldly churches we are every bit as blind as the Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah. When He rescues us from all that, we start to see things in the light of the Spirit. Because we had never before used our spiritual eyes, some of the things He wants to show us hurt.
Next Morpheus tells Neo, "Rest Neo, the answers are coming." In entering into the Father's rest we find all the answers we need to walk out the kingdom in this world. It is not by our might or power that we must walk, but by His Spirit. To walk in His seventh day rest is to walk in the Spirit just as Jesus did (see Hebrews chapters 3 and 4).
The next day Neo wakes up in his own room on the ship and is taken on a tour. As he is introduced to the crew by Morpheus, they walk by the ship's plaque. It reads "Nebuchadnezzar - Mark 3 No. 11."
Mark 3:11 reads:
And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God." (Mark 3:11, NKJV).
With the help of the port on the back of Neo's head left over form his captivity in the Matrix, Neo is plugged into a computer program. This program is used by Morpheus to give him a tour of the Matrix. Neo sees the vast fields of fetuses grown to give the machine the power it needs to survive. Finally it ends in this discourse:
MORPHEUS: "What is the Matrix? Control."
He opens the back of the television remote control.
MORPHEUS: "The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this."
He holds up a coppertop battery.
NEO: "No! I don't believe it! It's not possible!"
MORPHEUS: "I didn't say that it would be easy, Neo. I just said that it would be the truth."
Control is the issue between real life and death. Everything about this world system seeks to control its occupants. Control is everywhere, draining us of our lives. But there is one great difference between this world system and God. God does not control His people. He leads them like a good Shepherd. He goes before them, calling them by name and they know His voice and follow Him. This is NOT control, but willing submission out of hearts of love for Him. John chapter ten teaches us about His ways as our Shepherd.
So many are still living in a Satanic controlled dream world that holds them captive and sucks the life out of them. The greatest delusion is the religions of men, for they give the perception of spirituality without giving their adherents spiritual freedom to follow the Spirit.
Not many people can stand to see the whole truth, because in accepting the truth we must make some changes. The moment we refuse to be changed by the truth is the moment we are back under the control of the lie and once again under the control of The Matrix.
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-14, NKJV).
Next we see Neo back on the ship, unplugged from the construct program, struggling with the truth.
NEO: "I can't go back, can I?"
MORPHEUS: "No. But if you could, would you really want to?"
Deep down, Neo knows that answer.
MORPHEUS: "I feel that I owe you an apology. There is a rule that we do not free a mind once it reaches a certain age. It is dangerous. They have trouble letting go. Their mind turns against them. I've seen it happen. I broke the rule because I had to."
This is so true. The older we get and the longer we are in the world systems, the harder it is for us to get free. All the ones Jesus called as His disciples were young men in their twenties. When old Nicodemus came to Jesus one night, he was unable to understand the simplest of spiritual terms. The wineskin had already started to harden.
Morpheus continues: "When the Matrix was first built there was a man born inside that had the ability to change what he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was this man that freed the first of us and taught us the secret of the war; control the Matrix and you control the future, When he died, the Oracle prophesied his return and envisioned an end to the war and freedom for our people. That is why there are those of us that have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix, looking for him. I did what I did because I believe the search is over."
Paul wrote of this:
And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:45-50, NKJV)
Jesus is that Life-giving Spirit. He is the one that has come to end the war.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:14-19, NKJV).
The dialogue continues:
NEO: "I know what you're trying to do --"
MORPHEUS: "I'm trying to free your mind, Neo, but all I can do is show you the door. You're the one that has to step through."
Once we are saved, the problem is in our minds. Our minds have to become totally free. We must see ourselves as IN CHRIST beyond any doubt in order to walk in His power and authority. The door is there for us to step through just as it was for John in the Revelation.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." (Revelation 4:1, NKJV).
For a long time we Christians have left Jesus standing outside the door of our Laodicean churches while we were all snug inside. We thought that we were spiritually rich and needed nothing, selling short the kingdom of God, but all the time God saw us as mere babes needing milk. Sunday after Sunday we hear basic rudiments of faith preached again and again and we never go on to anything more. (see Hebrews 4:12 to 5:2)
He is calling us higher than the rudimentary levels of this world and sacramental religion. We are called to NOW dwell in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (see Ephesians 1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, and 6:12). From here in heavenly places the bride is seen coming down, the New Jerusalem from above.
Morpheus continues: "Let it all go, Neo. Fear. Doubt. Disbelief. Free your mind."
We, too, can miss it. Yes, WE who have been baptized in Christ! How? By refusing to walk in faith and follow Him into an ever increasing level of obedience. We must enter into His rest and there find the faith we need to walk after Him in our daily lives.
In a later training program, Neo is taken into a downtown Chicago scene bustling with people. Here Morpheus explains to Neo, "It is important to understand that if you are not one of us, you are one of them." Jesus put it this way: "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon is all the enticements of this world with which it seeks to control you through your carnal nature and lust for gain. There is no middle ground. The carnal nature is at war against God.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:7-9, NKJV).
Here in this program Neo encounters an agent of the A I that morphs from the form of a beautiful woman into his real self. Morpheus explains the threat to Neo. "The agents are sentient programs. They can enter any software that is hardwired to the system. They can become anyone who is still a captive of the Matrix. It the Matrix is a prison, then the agents are its wardens and if humankind is to survive they first must be stopped."
MORPHEUS: "I've seen an agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit noting but air. Yet as powerful as they are, their speed and strength are but tethers to the rules of an unreal world. Because of this, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.
Neo scratches his head.
NEO: " What? Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge bullets?"
MORPHEUS: "No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."
As powerful as Satan and his minions might be, God has placed a greater power in those who are His --a power over demons, sickness and death, the power to reverse the entropy brought into this world through sin.
Later, not knowing it, Neo catches Cypher at the computer controls of the ship making a deal with Agent Smith. Cypher is willing to sell his body back into the Matrix if he can become a movie star and live the rest of his life in the delusion of success, living high on the hog, with the reality outside the Matrix erased from his mind. For this bit of delusion, he agrees to turn over Morpheus, the only one with the password to access the mainframe computer in Zion. Here the plot starts to thicken. Judas is about to sell out the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and turn Morpheus over to the agents.
Finally, the day comes when Morpheus takes Neo to see the Oracle and here is Cypher's chance to betray Morpheus. Inside the Matrix and in the city once again, Cypher turns on his cell phone and drops it in a nearby garbage can so the agents can follow its signal.
In the car a dialogue goes on between Trinity and Neo, who recognizes some of the city where his mind was once a captive in non-existence:
NEO: "I have these memories, from my entire life but... none of them really happened."
He turns to her.
NEO: "What does that mean?"
TRINITY: "That the Matrix cannot tell you who you are."
NEO: "But an Oracle can."
So many people in this world are seeking an identity from the system that sucks the life out of them. They spend all their lives trying to build a legacy and a name for themselves or serving some insidious sin that controls them through the lusts of their body. They look to the Matrix to tell them who they are.
Finally in his meeting with the Oracle she tells him, "Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you are waiting for something… your next life, maybe. Who knows. That's how these things go… "
How many of the promises of the Bible for its kingdom people do we delegate to the next life? The older I get and the more God opens my eyes, the less I apply the words of the scriptures to the next life, but see it as all ONE life and see that "ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…" The dispensational teachings of men have made too much of the Bible of no effect in the lives of God's saints today.
The Oracle continues, "Morpheus believes in you, Neo and no one, not you or even me can convince him otherwise. He believe it so blindly that he's going to sacrifice his life to save yours."
Jesus believes in us, and He believes in the power of His Father to bring us forth into the fellowship of the Son. He believed this so much that He gave His life so we could be joint heirs of that inheritance with Him. Paul wrote to the Romans,
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:27-30, NKJV).e
Later in a hotel they are climbing the stairs on their way back to the Nebuchadnezzar. Trinity has this dialogue with Neo:
TRINITY: "What did you just say?"
NEO: "Nothing. Just had a little deja vu."
TRINITY: "What happened? What did you see?"
NEO: "A black cat went past us and then I saw another that looked just like it."
TRINITY: "How much like it? Was it the same cat?"
NEO: "It might have been. I'm not sure."
Trinity looks at Morpheus who listens quietly to the rasping breath of the old building.
NEO: "What is it?"
TRINITY: "A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something."
The more things in Satan's evil kingdom change, the more they remain the same. He is not original except in his own rebellion and passing that rebellion on to men. He has succeeded in deluding man over and over with the same root of temptation generated in his own heart. Of him Isaiah prophesied,
For you have said in your heart: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:13,14, NKJV).
Oh to be like God. On the surface this seems to be a godly goal, but is really rebellion. Man is not called to imitate God, but to yield to Him and let His Spirit manifest His will in us. It is not "What would Jesus do?" as if we could imagine what God would do in any situation, much less have the power to do it. No, it is rather, "what is Jesus doing in us at this moment as His saints?" This is the difference between rebellion and yielding. The spiritual man knows there is no good thing in his old nature.
Finally, they all escape the agents and police of the Matrix except Morpheus, who lays down his life for Neo and the others. He is not killed, but taken to be interrogated in a very secure police building. Cypher gets back to the ship before the others and continues his betrayal by unplugging the rest of the crew while they are still in the Matrix, killing them. He comes to Neo and just as he is about to unplug his body, Tank revives from the wound inflicted by Cypher and kills the traitor. Once back on the ship, Neo hatches a plan to save Morpheus and is determined to go it alone. Trinity convinces him that she must go with him for him to succeed. God calls us to function and minister as a body, not a bunch of one-man bands.
In the mean time in the government building where Morpheus is being held, Agent Smith stands, staring out the windows at the city below shimmering with brilliant sunlight.
AGENT SMITH: "Have you ever stood and stared at it, Morpheus? Marveled at its beauty. Its genius. Billions of people just living out their lives... oblivious."
Morpheus is handcuffed to a chair, stripped to the waist. He is alternately shivering and sweating, wired to various monitors with white disk electrodes. Beside him, Agent Brown sucks a drug from a glass vial, filling a hypodermic needle.
AGENT SMITH: "Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost."
Agent Brown jams the needle into Morpheus' neck and pushes down the plunger.
AGENT SMITH: "Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery."
Agent Brown studies the screens as the life signs react violently to the injection.
AGENT SMITH: "The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization."
He turns from the window.
AGENT SMITH: "I say 'your civilization' because as soon as we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization, which is, of course, what this is all about."
When Satan and his minions found themselves cast out of heaven and without bodies , they set out to take this world captive for their own use. They still seek our bodies to manifest themselves. They use delusion and lies to control us so that they can manifest the real evil that drives them. This is where all the pain and suffering of this world comes from.
Agent Smith sits down directly in front of Morpheus.
AGENT SMITH: "Evolution, Morpheus. Evolution."
He lifts Morpheus' head.
AGENT SMITH: "Like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time."
Morpheus stares hard at him, trying not to show the pain racking his mind.
AGENT SMITH: "The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time."
Here we see the insidious plan of Satan at work. The first world was perfect, and God considered everything He created was good. Satan set out to be the god of this perfect world. By deceiving man and getting him to join the rebellion against God, Satan became its ruler. Man fell for the same lie that was in Satan's heart, "If you eat of this tree you shall be like God, knowing both good and evil." Upon man's fall, entire crops were lost. Man was doomed to die in his sin. God then enacted the rest of His plan by putting in motion a sequence of events among men that would make way for the advent of His Son who would suffer and die for mankind that they might be saved and conformed into His own image.
In a sense Agent Smith is right, "human beings define their reality through suffering and misery." As Paul put it:
. . .that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11, NKJV).
Without suffering and tribulation there is no entering the kingdom of heaven. (See Acts 14:22).
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5, NKJV).
This quote from Agent Smith is interesting, "I say 'your civilization' because as soon as we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization, which is, of course, what this is all about." This is how Satan took control of the world God had given man to rule over. He got man to let him do the thinking for him, making him think that he was doing the thinking.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:1-7, NKJV).
God nowhere said that touching the tree in the midst of the garden would cause them to die. She was now thinking for herself, or was she? Her thoughts were really put in her mind by the enemy. Satan accused God of lying to man to protect His own self interest and tells Eve, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Here is the folly of religious man. He still eats of this tree today. He is constantly deciding for himself what is good and what is evil. "We don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls that do!"
Jesus must have used a different measuring stick, because the religious leaders of Israel were constantly offended by His actions. He ate with sinners and harlots. His disciples did not observe the ceremonial washing of hands before they ate. They were constantly breaking the Sabbath, at least according to these self-righteous ones who ruled by the law over the people of Israel.
Jesus did not walk by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He walked by the Tree of Life. When the Pharisees came at Him with a good and evil question, He gave an answer that rendered life. We would do well to learn form Him and listen to the Father of all life as He did. Here is an example:
Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." (John 8:3-11, NKJV).
Jesus did not answer according to a law, but gave the poor woman life and freed her of condemnation and sin. Jesus did not come to fortify their religion, nor did He come to establish a new one that was better. He came that all men might have life and that more abundantly. He came to reverse the curse that came upon man when he listened to the serpent. He came to give man another chance to learn to hear the voice of the Father speaking to him in love. Isaiah prophesied of this when he said,
And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30:20,21, NKJV).
John put it this way,
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. (1 John 2:27, NKJV).
In the following dialogue Neo, and Trinity argue over whether it is Neo--who will save the world--or Morpheus who really counts:
TRINITY: "Neo, Morpheus sacrificed himself so he could get you out."
NEO: "Morpheus did what he did because he believed that I'm something I'm not."
TRINITY: "What?"
NEO: "I'm not the One, Trinity. The Oracle hit me with that too."
Trinity is stunned.
TRINITY: "No, you... have to be."
NEO: "I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm just another guy. Morpheus is the one that matters."
TRINITY: "No, Neo. That's not true It can't be true."
NEO: "Why?"
TRINITY: "Because..."
Uncertainty swallows her words and she is unable to tell him what she wants to.
Christ came to not only die for our sins so we would not have to, but to prepare the way so that we could walk before the Father like He does. For many people, this causes the same confusion we see here in this dialogue between Neo and Trinity. Morpheus, a type of Christ, IS the one that counts, but at the same time we count, too, because we are becoming one with him As Jesus prayed in that last hour before He was to go to the cross:
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:16-26, NKJV).
All the way through this prayer of His, "I" and "them" are mentioned together. This is the goal of the gospel and the Christian life--Christ in us the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
The dialogue back onboard the Nebuchadnezzar continues:
TANK: "Neo, this is loco. They've got Morpheus in a military-controlled building. Even if you somehow got inside, those are agents holding him. Three of them! I want Morpheus back, too, but what you are talking about is suicide."
NEO: "I know that's what it looks like, but it's not. I can't logically explain to you why it's not. Morpheus believed something and he was ready to give his life for what he believed. I understand that now. That's why I have to go.
TANK: "Why?"
NEO: "Because I believe in something."
For the first three hundred years of the church, the people of God laid down their lives for Christ and millions of them died at the hands of the Jewish leaders and Roman despots. They believed in something because Jesus led the way and first laid down His life for that same goal. They considered it an honor to die for their faith in Christ. Like Moses, the momentary comforts of this world could not hold them back from going the distance.
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:24-27, NKJV).
Neo and Trinity arm themselves in the construct and Tank transports them into the Matrix where they manage to rescue Morpheus from the agents in spite of the seemingly insurmountable odds. Afterwards we hear this exchange between Neo and Morpheus before they are able to exit the Matrix:
NEO: "Morpheus, the Oracle... she told me --"
MORPHEUS: "She told you exactly what you needed to hear. That's all. Sooner or later, Neo, you're going to realize just like I did the difference between knowing the path and walking the path."
Here is the crux of our dilemma as faithful saints in Christ. Are we going to just give lip service to the promises of Christ or are we going to start living them out by the power of His Spirit? Someone once said, "You are what you believe." The longer you live, the more you will see this is true. There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Finally, Morpheus and Trinity manage to escape back to their ship, but before Neo can get out an agent materializes and thwarts his exit on a subway platform below the city. Morpheus, Trinity and Tank watch the confrontation between the two foes. Neo looks toward the stairs as if to make a run for it, but turns back to face Agent Smith.
TRINITY: "What is he doing?"
MORPHEUS: "He's beginning to believe."
When we really begin to believe, we start walking that way. We become what we believe in Christ. The theme of this whole movie focuses on getting Neo to believe that he is "the one." Morpheus believes he is; Trinity wants to, and that belief grows with each leap of maturity Neo takes.
At what point are we saved? Some say you are saved when you "accept Christ as your personal Savior." Yet, the Bible says that we were in Christ from the foundations of the world. Paul wrote,"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1,2, NKJV). True salvation is a process that is ongoing. The process is not complete until we come into the fullness of Christ and walk out our faith like the Master did on this earth, "that where I am, they might be also." As Paul wrote:
. . .that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. a(Philippians 3:10-14, NKJV).
Neo battles against Agent Smith and finally wins--for a moment. Agent Smith gets run over by a subway train as they struggle, but then pops out of the interior of the train car as it stops and the doors open. At this Neo takes off up the stairs on a dead run. The chase is on through the bustling streets of Chicago with all three agents after him. Finally, Neo climbs the fire escape on the back of the Heart of the City Hotel and dives into room 303 where a phone is ringing, his method of exit from the Matrix. But Agent Smith is there with gun drawn, waiting for him. Neo sees the barrel of the gun pointing at him and then "BOOM!" Neo is shot in the chest. He staggers back, "Boom" again and again. Neo staggers out into the hall and slumps down against the opposite wall leaving a streak of blood on the wall as he hits the floor, dead.
AGENT SMITH: "Check him."
Kneeling beside him, Agent Brown checks his vital signs.
AGENT BROWN: "He's gone."
Agent Smith smiles, standing over him.
AGENT SMITH: "Good-bye, Mr. Anderson."
Meanwhile, back on the Nebachudnezzar, they have been fighting their own battle against the Sentinels, octopus like robots armed with lasers that can cut into the ship. The sentinels have been sent out by the A I to destroy them. They have a dilemma. The crew's only defense is to fire their electro-magnetic pulse weapon that disables the sentinels but also breaks the electronic tie to Neo and kills him.
Neo appears dead in the hallway of the cheap hotel, surrounded by the three agents, but Trinity believes that he will raise from the dead. This reminds me of the scene of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, speaking to Martha Lazarus' sister.
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." (John 11:23-27, NKJV).
Back on the ship, Trinity speaks into the lifeless body of Neo in the chair where it is plugged into the Matrix.
TRINITY: "Neo, please, listen to me. I promised to tell you the rest. The Oracle, she told me that I'd fall in love and that man, the man I loved would be the One. You see? You can't be dead, Neo, you can't be because I love you. You hear me? I love you!"
Her eyes close and she kisses him, believing in all her heart that he will feel her lips and know that they speak the truth.He does. And they do. His eyes snap open.
Back on the main deck of the ship, Trinity screams as the monitors back to life. Tank and Morpheus look at each other. It is a miracle.
TRINITY: "Now get up!"
In the hall of the hotel. Holding his chest, Neo struggles to get up. At the end of the hall, the Agents wait for the elevator when Agent Smith glances back. He rips off his sunglasses looking at Neo as if he were looking at a ghost. Neo gets to his feet, all three Agents grabbing for their guns. As one, they fire.
NEO: "No!"
Neo raises his hands and the bullets, like a cloud of obedient bees, slow and come to a stop. They hang frozen in space, fixed like stainless steel stars. The Agents are unable to absorb what they are seeing. Neo plucks one of the bullets from the air. He drops the bullet and the others fall to the floor. Neo looks out, now able to see through the curtain of the Matrix. For a moment, the walls, the floor, even the Agents become a rushing stream of computer code.
Back on the main deck of the ship. all three stare transfixed with awe as the scrolling code accelerates, faster and faster, as if the machine language was unable to keep up or describe what is happening. They begin to blur with brilliant saturated color images of Neo standing in the hall.
TANK: "How...?!"
MORPHEUS: "He is the One. He is the One!"
An explosion shakes the entire ship.
Back in the hotel hall, Agent Smith screams, his calm machine-like expression shredding with pure rage. He rushes Neo. His attack is ferocious but Neo blocks each blow easily. Then with one quick strike to the chest he sends Agent Smith flying backwards. For the first time since their inception, the Agents know fear. Agent Smith gets up and attacks again but as he lunges, Neo disappears. Spinning around he looks to the others and feels something, like a tremor before a quake, something deep, something that is going to change everything. Suddenly a earing sound stabs through his earpiece as his chest begins to swell, then balloon as Neo bursts up out of him. Agent Smith screams, fighting what seems inevitable as Neo absorbs and envelops him, overtaking Smith as if he were now an Agent, until only Neo is left. Neo faces the remaining Agents. They look at each other, the same idea striking simultaneously and they run.
In Christ we who are his saints, win over the wicked one.
. . .but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:8-11, NKJV).
As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:36-39, NKJV).
Back on the ship, sentinels are everywhere, destroying the ship. A laser cuts its way towards Morpheus, who stands at the EMP detonator.
TRINITY: "Neo!"
In the hotel hall, he hears her. He reacts to the ringing phone, rushing towards it even as he LASERS burn towards Morpheus on the Nebuchadnezzar. We see Neo dive for the phone as the laser hits.
TRINITY: "Now!"
Morpheus turns the key. A blinding shock of white light floods the chamber; Sentinels blink and fall instantly dead, filling the pit with their cold metal carcasses. In the still darkness, only the humans are alive.
TRINITY: "Neo?"
His eyes open. Tears pour from her smiling eyes as he reaches up to touch her. She kisses him; it seems like it might last forever.
It does.
And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! (2 Timothy 4:18, NKJV). Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20,21, NKJV).
FADE TO BLACK
FADE IN:
CLOSE ON COMPUTER SCREEN as in the opening. The cursor beating steadily, waiting.
A PHONE begins to RING.
It is answered and the screen fills instantly with the trace program. After a long beat, we recognize Neo's voice.
NEO: "Hi. It's me. I know you're out there. I can feel you now."
We CLOSE IN ON the racing columns of numbers shimmering across the screen.
NEO: "I imagine you can also feel me."
We DIVE THROUGH the numbers, SURGING UP THROUGH the darkness, SUCKED TOWARDS a tight constellation of stars.
NEO: "I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how it's going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin.
"I'm going to hang up this phone. I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."
God sent Jesus into this rebellious world to oppose the works of the devil. He paved the way for us to have a part in that work. Satan knows his days are numbered. Change is foreign to him. He only can repeat what works for him. It is God that authors change, though He Himself does not change. We who abide in Christ are His instruments of change. "Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7, NKJV).
God has given us the task of revealing the truth to those who seek it. He did not give us a job of trading them one form of bondage for another. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32). Jesus came to fill up the just requirements of the law and set us free to walk in His Spirit as God's own sons and daughters. In this world all things in Christ are open to us.
We shoot through the holes as Neo hangs up the phone. He steps out of the phone booth and slides on a pair of sunglasses. He looks up and we rise,higher and higher until the city is miles below. After a moment, Neo blasts by us, his long black coat billowing like a black leather cape as he flies faster then a speeding bullet.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." (Revelation 4:1, NKJV).
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. (Philippians 3:13-15, NKJV).
Obey the upward call of the Spirit in Christ and His life in you becomes an adventure with no boundaries.
FADE OUT.
THE END
Quotations are from the Matrix script by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and may vary slightly from dialog in the movie.
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