My wife is out of town for a few nights at a conference in St. Louis. As such, I'm spending my time as I usually do when she's out of town: I hide at home alone, eat junk food, drink too much pop, stay up too late, and watch violent movies. That is, I revel in the heady days of bachelorhood for a short enough period to enjoy it, but not long enough to regret it too badly. I suppose I'd better while I can because sooner or later I'm going to be old and decrepit and have kids and then all the fun ends. ;)
Anyway, last night I decided to watch the Matrix trilogy. I made it through the first two by 2:30 am last night, but decided that I should go to bed at that point since I wanted to be in at work at a decent time the next morning. I just finished The Matrix Revolutions a couple hours ago. As usual, this movie moves me in a really powerful way to think about God.
What do I mean? Well, SciFi often has this affect on me because it generally provides a worldview where either God flat doesn't exist or His existence isn't really evident. In a way, this drives a strong wedge of confidence in the truth that there is a God and He cares.
In the case of The Matrix, it is heightened because it is an extremely spiritual movie. I mean "spiritual" as everything has some sort of mystical or religious meaning. Morpheus likes to talk about his beliefs and "the Path." (Making him sound vaguely Buddhist.) In Revolutions, Neo meets a program that believes in Karma. Agent Smith is constantly referring to "purpose." Neo ends up as a sort of blind prophet who becomes the messiah when he destroyes Agent Smith through a sacrifice that was visually portrayed as a crucifixion. After this "crucifixion," the AI being states, "It is done," which is a clear reference to the statement of Jesus on the cross, "It is finished." Also, a sort of reincarnation is implied as the Oracle expects Neo to one day return again.
And yet, with all these religious overtones I find myself at the end of the movie deeply unsatisfied. All the religious connotations have no ultimate meaning. It's as if the message is that our purpose is simply to exist and do the tasks set before us. The final movie makes a profound statement of truth when the Oracle says, "Everything that has a beginning has an end." This is a natural side-effect of the linear progression of time. I.e., sooner or later, humanity and earth and the universe itself must have an end. Therefore, if this is the case one can accept the hopelessness that what happens here doesn't really matter because it will all end eventually, one can deny this truth and seek to redefine reality so that there might not be an end, or one must believe that there is some greater purpose that exists beyond the end.
When I watch The Matrix I sense the hopelessness of that universe without any God. Sooner or later the humans and the machines will be destroyed. They must have an end. But, what's the rest of it mean until then? As far as I can tell, nothing except to toil according to your lot in life.
"Ergo," the hope I feel when I think back upon the reality I know here! I know that the end will come, but that the end of this universe becomes a sort of beginning for the next where time has no meaning. It boggles the mind to try and consider it. Yet, I know it to be true and just out of the reach of a mind confined within the ceaseless ticking of time. The Architect makes a statement about "hope" being a foolish construct of the human mind providing it's greatest strength and greatest weakness. Of course, in a universe such as that, hope is for fools. However, in a world doomed to burn, there is great hope yearning for the eternity to arrive at time's end!
Anyway, that's a rather whimsical view of why I'm encouraged by such otherwise hopeless material. It helps me to recognize the blessings I have and the hope of my calling by Christ through the Spirit according to the will of the Father.
Leave a comment