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The Matrix As A Parable
by Chip Brogden
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
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Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the *world* that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
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It is approximately 200 years in the future. The earth has been taken over by machines who have created a computer-generated reality to deceive humans into thinking that the world around them is real. The actual truth is that all humans are plugged into cocoon-like structures which use their body heat to generate power for the machines. They are all in a coma and kept alive by the machines which feed them intravenously. The machines send electrical signals to their brain which make them think they are living and interacting in the normal world, oblivious and unaware that in the real world they are plugged into a machine which is using them for fuel. This digitally-induced hallucination is called the Matrix. There are a handful of humans who have broken free from the Matrix and are waging war against the machines to free the human race. They search the Matrix looking for the One whose coming is prophesied. The One will have the ability to destroy the Matrix and end the war.
CHARACTER AND NAME SYMBOLISMS
The characters and names in the Matrix are highly symbolic and suggest some kind of religious message was intended. As with all parables we do not want to read too much into every detail, but it is interesting to note the use of the following terms and concepts:
Neo (New): the seeker of truth who eventually becomes the One who defeats the Matrix
Morpheus (One Who Changes): the leader of the group who finds Neo and takes responsibility for Neo's training
Trinity: introduces Neo to Morpheus and eventually falls in love with Neo
Nebuchadnezzar: the name of the ship they travel in
Zion: the last free human city, located near the Earth's core where it is still warm
COMMON INTERPRETATIONS OF THE MATRIX MESSAGE
Those who choose to interpret The Matrix as a parable are generally divided into two viewpoints. The first viewpoint views the movie as a Messianic tale in which Neo is a type of Christ, since Neo dies and comes back to life again to free the world. But Neo as Jesus is a stretch of the imagination. Neo may be billed as the savior of the world, but he is neither all-knowing nor all-powerful. Cypher as Judas Iscariot does not actually betray Neo, but Morpheus, thus the analogy fails.
Seeing Neo as an imperfect Messiah, the second viewpoint sees the movie as a blasphemous misrepresentation of Christ in the character of Neo. We don't believe this is a fair interpretation unless you think Neo is meant to represent Christ, and we have already demonstrated how that analogy breaks down under scrutiny.
There is a third interpretation which goes a little deeper and views Morpheus as a type of Christ who seeks out Neo as a type of the Church in order to save the world. The problem with this is Morpheus as Jesus could never be captured and then rescued by Neo as the Church, and Neo as the Church would never exceed the abilities of Morpheus as Jesus. Morpheus cannot be the Holy Spirit for the same reasons.
OUR INTERPRETATION
The interpretation we have settled upon is Neo as a type of the Overcomers. Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest are those who have come to know the Truth. They have escaped the Matrix, but they are still living a defeated life. This describes the Church in general. In the Book of Revelation we find that the Lord is looking among the defeated Church for overcomers who will demonstrate the victory of Christ. Overcomers are not a super-spiritual elite class, they are simply those who rise up and fulfill God's original intent for the Church as a whole. They are the remnant which stand for God's Will and God's Kingdom on behalf of the entire Church. They are living the normal Christian life, whereas the others are living far below their potential. Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world: it is there for anyone, not for a select few. The reality, however, is only a few will actually count the cost, lay down their lives, and live as Overcomers.
Of the whole group Morpheus is the one charged with finding and training the One who will destroy the Matrix and bring freedom to the human race. We interpret Morpheus to be representative of the ministry gifts, which are placed in the Church to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and bring them to the full-knowledge (epignosis) of the Truth. This is precisely what Morpheus does for Neo.
So what we have typified in the Matrix is a group of people who are born into bondage, but having escaped from bondage, are still living in bondage. Or to put it another way, they are out of Egypt, but still wandering in the wilderness. Neo is the one who rises above the rest and finally overcomes the Matrix. Thus, Neo represents not one man, but a group of people: those who are called to be Overcomers. The Matrix is the world system, and the ones who have escaped the Matrix represent the Church, the called-out ones.
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