Preaching And The Matrix: Using Popular Culture To Proclaim Christ?
The following film (The Matrix: Reloaded) is addressing the question: is Neo really the one and what does salvation look like? And like in the Christ story, as we found out in the second film, it doesn’t always go the way we expect. On Good Friday, things were looking pretty dim as they were in this Matrix film. My guess is with the third film (The Matrix: Revolutions, which opens November 5), we will see Easter Sunday from the film — that we will see some form of redemption and faith will win out.
Preaching: In the films there are so many spiritual undertones and images going on. At the same time there is not only Christian imagery — this is a pluralistic film.
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Seay: Without a doubt. You get two responses from people of faith: one says, “You are somehow raping my story by putting it along side these other stories.” The other is saying, where I come down, “You know, what if our story is so powerful and so beautiful that if you begin to tell it at all people are going to be drawn to it?” I think it is the metaphor that is raised up among the many that are there. The influences range from comic books to Japanese anime, to Hinduism, to Buddhism, it’s all over the map. But the one people tend to run to the most is Christianity.
Now the biggest danger for me that I see most often is a dysfunctional kind of Christianity that looks more like Gnosticism in the film, this heretical offshoot of Christianity. It’s more influenced by those things than the others. We’ve got to address it, like I think people need to address everything with our whole minds, with our thoughts under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need to be discerning about what’s true, what’s not true.
There’s not a thing in the world that I think we can swallow whole, this film included. I haven’t seen a Christian book that I would just accept everything that is written in it. We ought to be engaging everything we read and see, trying to decide what’s right and what’s not. That is the approach we should try to have with this film.
Preaching: Clearly we’re not going to take our theology from these films, but in what ways have you been able to use them to try to communicate the gospel with people in your community?
Seay: Almost everybody I talk with in my world knows and loves these films so the concept of a savior makes sense in this film. For some people it doesn’t always make sense, at least within their preconceived understanding of what Christianity is. So it gives a new discussion point, a new place to start in walking through the story of God.
I really believe what Jesus said: seek and you will find. That is the ultimate part of this film — what it always comes back to. In the beginning it was the question that drives you. In the second film the power is in the why. But if we ask the right questions we will eventually get the right answers.