The Matrix and Freedom

The Matrix and Freedom

In the movie The Matrix, a young man named Neo learns that what he thought was the real world is actually a computer-generated virtual reality. The real world turns out to be a barren wasteland that has been decimated by an apocalyptic war between human and machines.

Freed from his virtual enslavement, Neo voluntarily re-enters The Matrix and works toward liberating the human race from this "prison of the mind". Back inside, he learns how to deconstruct the virtual reality around him. He becomes aware that many of the rules he once thought to be absolute can be bent or outright broken.

Neo uses this awareness to move through The Matrix in startling ways. He defies gravity, dodges bullets, and eventually learns to manipulate the appearance of the virtual reality from the inside. These feats are made possible by his ability to distinguish what is absolute from what only seems absolute.
   
Christian freedom is not unlike the freedom that Neo experiences. We might not be enslaved in a virtual reality, but we do lead lives that are governed by rules and categories that we have created. These structures and limitations often seem absolute, but many are not.

For Neo, the key to freedom was knowing that the world around him was virtual, created by a computer program. For us, the key is knowing the difference between what God has ordered and what humans have ordered. When we understand this distinction, we can begin to deconstruct all the structures and rules we have created, consciously and unconsciously.

Seeing the world more as it really is, and less as we have constructed it to be, we are freed to pursue the way of Christ. This deconstructed view of the world can allow us to move through and serve the complex matrix of human society in ways that are just as amazing as Neo's reality-bending heroics in The Matrix.

Of course, there is nothing new about this notion of Christian freedom. Throughout history, followers of Christ have sought release from the boundedness of human structures and rules. The Matrix analogy merely renews this tradition of faithful deconstruction for a new digital generation.