WHO’S LOOKING FOR WHOM?
It seems that Neo and Morpheus have been looking for each other. Trinity makes the first contact:
Wake up, Neo…
Neo’s life begins to change rapidly, from this point onward. For the first time in his search, Neo realizes that someone or something is searching for him.
The Matrix has you…
He knows that he has been contacted by someone, something. He realizes that he must respond immediately. The prompt is insistent:
Follow the white rabbit…
His mind reels. How can anybody just hack into his PC? How do they know his name?
What do they want? Who are they? Where are they? He needed time to think!
Knock, knock, Neo.
Immediately there is a knock at the door. He realizes that he has made contact with something big. From that moment, he knows that he must investigate..
He follows the white rabbit, and is led to Trinity, who tells him that he is close to getting some answers, and warns him of danger. The next day in his office cubicle he receives a cell-phone by courier. As he removes it from the package, the phone rings, and he answers it.
“Hello, Neo. Do you know who this is?
“Morpheus?” Neo whispers in surprise.
“Yes.” Says Morpheus. “I’ve been looking for you, Neo…”
I’ve been looking for you, Neo…
It is his first conversation with Morpheus. Later, after he is apprehended by Agent Smith, interrogated and implanted with a bugging device, he wakes up shaking from a horrible nightmare, and the phone rings:
“This line is tapped,” Morpheus warns him, “ so I must be brief. They got to you first, but they’ve underestimated how important you are. If they knew what I know, you would probably be dead.”
“What are you talking about?” asks Neo, “What is happening to me?
“You are the One, Neo. You see, you may have spent the last few years looking for me, but I’ve spent my entire life looking for you.”
There is a brief pause, and then Morpheus adds,
“Now, do you still want to meet?”
DO YOU STILL WANT TO MEET?
Part Three began to deal with the question, “what is reality?” .
It ended with two more questions, “who is the creator of reality?” and “why?”
Perhaps you may think that it is wrong to answer a question with a question but in this case it is necessary. Why? Because as is amazingly illustrated in the film, just as the Matrix cannot be understood without understanding about AI, reality cannot be understood without also considering the question “who or what is the creator of reality?”
Just as it was impossible for Neo to figure out the SYSTEM of the Matrix without considering the people involved in creating it, there is no way you can figure out reality without considering who created it.
“There is but one thought greater than that of the universe, and that is the thought of it’s Maker.” [J.H.Neuman’s “Idea of a University” ii.8]
Fact is, you will never figure out reality on your own, you’re going to need help from OUTSIDE reality, because of the nature of reality. You may have heard people ask such questions as “what is the meaning of life?” or “why are we here?” but the answer is usually a vague “there’s really no way of knowing.”
Well, there is no way of knowing if the program includes a subprogram that forbids you finding the answer. Neo was in this situation. While he suspected something was going on (the splinter in his mind) he couldn’t find the answer by himself, because the Matrix supercomputer programmed his virtual reality simulation in such a way that he was “blind” to the influence of the Matrix. He was blind to the true nature of reality because his reality was programmed that way.
Some things in Reality cannot be understood because we are programmed to be blind to understanding them. That’s the gist of the cryptic Bible quotation, “ He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” [Ecclesiastes 3:11] The world, our reality, was created to be so real, there is no way we can detect the source, or how it was done. It is so real that even if we believe it had a creator (or programmer) we have no way of deducing from the creation why or how he created it.
The only way we can finally know why or how, is if He tells us himself.
Psalm 19:1 in the Bible says “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”. This means, the universe is so astoundingly vast, complicated, and beautiful, it should be obvious that it couldn’t have happened by accident, it had to be created— and the creator of it must be extraordinarily powerful and wise. The verse tells us this creator is God, but it doesn’t give details as to why he created it. In this respect we (in our reality) are in the same situation as Neo before he is contacted by Morpheus. We are in the dark. Even if we suspect “there’s something going on”[1] we have no way to confirm our suspicions. Who is “behind it all”? Whoever this creator is, he is totally invisible and totally undetectable by normal human means.
Neo couldn’t say, “something tells me that the world I am living in is a computer simulation” ― because the Matrix simulation was so good, so complete, so real, that it was impossible to tell it was a simulation. All Neo could say was, “there’s something funny going on here, and I don’t know what it is, but I aim to find out.”
The extraordinarily complex concept behind The Matrix is similar to our own situation as human beings in the world we live in. We can see the world, but we can’t see the creator of this world (or “the programmer”, in Matrix terms). We can’t detect him in any way. No scientist has ever been able to make an instrument with which to detect the presence of a creator or “God”. Like Neo in his computer-controlled tank of pseudo-amniotic fluid, we are completely oblivious of our real situation.
So then how can we become aware of our “real” situation? If there is a real situation outside of the one we perceive as real? [2]
Well, how did Neo become aware of his real situation? First of all, there’s the “splinter in his mind”. There was something in the back of his mind that made him suspicious. Some of us have experienced this. I personally call it “premonitions of eternity”. The Bible calls it LIGHT: “the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.”[3] Here’s an even more appropriate verse: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”[4]
Of course, this is not physical light. It’s truth about reality. Many people live their whole lives never asking “what’s it all about?”, but some of us can’t live without knowing. We just sense there’s got to be answers. Question like “what’s it all about?” or “where did I come from?” or “why am I here?” are just begging for an answer! Because these kinds of questions are rarely asked in public, and if they’re asked, they rarely seem to get any good answers, most of us are given the impression that there aren’t any answers.
IT’S THE QUESTIONS THAT DRIVE US
But the questions are there, and some of us will not let go until we get an answer. It’s what DRIVES US. And that’s GOOD. Why? Because when that moment comes, we are ready.
Some of us believe life is really a search for truth. And that splinter in our mind is a constant reminder to stay on the lookout. To stay tuned. For what?
For when the time finally comes for the next step.
Neo was ready for the next step, because when the opportunity came, he took it. Let’s just say that he was seeking for answers, and that made him ready.
YOUR JOB IS TO STAY READY FOR THE CALL
What about the next step? Did Neo discover the secret of the Matrix by himself? Certainly not! It was Trinity who initiated contact by computer― she told him to “follow the white rabbit.” Then when Neo followed the white rabbit, he actually met Trinity, and ultimately Morpheus. It was Morpheus who had initiated contact. It was Morpheus who began the whole process, but if Neo had not responded he would never have gotten any further. Morpheus could not on his own have rescued Neo from the Matrix.
So who contacted whom? Who had been looking for whom? The fact of the matter is that subconsciously Neo had been looking for Morpheus for years, and Morpheus had been actively trying to make contact with him for years. In a way, both were looking for each other, but really, practically speaking, Neo had to be ready, even though Morpheus had been ready for years. Morpheus could have made the first contact at any time, but he knew that Neo had to be ready.
So what saved Neo from the Matrix? Practically speaking, what started it all and what eventually saved him was a combination of three things:
-
- Neo was looking for something or somebody
- Something or somebody was looking for him.
- When the contact finally came, Neo acted.
What is the Biblical equivalent to the situation in The Matrix? Well, some of us human beings are looking for something, whether you could call it God, or just answers. If you’re looking, then you’re a seeker.
But take a lesson from the Matrix: no man by being a seeker will find the answer on his own. The other side has got to be making an effort to make contact . Morpheus was looking for Neo. And Biblically speaking, God is looking for you.
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”[Luke19:10]
Right now you need to ask yourself two questions:
“ Do I want to find God?
“Do I want Him to find me?”
“Now, do you still want to meet?”
YOUR CHOICES
1. I want to go ON to PART 5