149 Nothing But the Truth

If there is one valid parallel between the 1999 movie "Matrix" and our reality as those who claim and attempt to be genuine and authentic followers of "the One," then it's the scene in which Morpheus tells Neo, "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth."

That's all Jesus ever had to offer, too, and blessed Peter was the first one to realize and proclaim it, after the bulk of the 70 that used to follow Jesus left Him as a result of His appalling "Cannibal" sermon in John Chapter Six, and Jesus turns toward the twelve He had chosen and asks them, "Do you also want to leave?"

Peter was usually one of the more impulsive of Jesus' disciples who sometimes seemed to speak before he would think, but at this precise moment it must have been the Holy Spirit getting a hold of him when he said, "Lord, where should we go? You alone have words of eternal life."

In other words: "This may be a lousy life here in the real world and in the Resistance against the machines: the food is bad, and most of our friends don't really believe that You are the One, and it looks like we're fighting for a hopeless cause sometimes, totally outnumbered; and not everything seems to make sense all the time. But all we know is that You've got the truth, and that's worth it all for us, and worthy enough a Cause to give our lives for and follow You to the death for."

But just as it was in 30 A.D., such folks are rare. Most of us have much higher demands of life than merely something as impractical as the truth. We want it comfortably presented with a huge entertainment program, preferably along with a barbecue or at least with a hot band playing. Or at least we don't want to lose face with our community, but look like respectable members of society, which after all, most of us are, in our nice, big, respectable churches.
Not like those weird cults who are going overboard in their religious zeal and insist on trying to convert everyone else to their cause all the time. I mean, Jesus never said anything about having to be a religious fanatic, right? In fact, aren't they even a reproach to the Cause of Christ?
I mean, look at them: they have no money, they have no reputation... Who would want to join them?

Right. Who would?

I guess it's still only those who are in it for the truth and nothing but the truth, against all odds.

Folks aren't always as friendly in the Resistance movement, compared to the folks visiting the churches in the Matrix.
They might not like you. They might even resist you. And if you look at the ones fighting on your left and on your right, you're sometimes tempted to wonder if this could be really IT...
They don't make it easy on you, and they don't insist on you being around, fighting along with them, unless perhaps you really mean business, and are willing to give it your all for this Cause, no matter how hopeless it seems, without murmuring and complaining. Everybody already knows that it's tough, so what's the use in complaining?
Or perhaps they're just here because that's where they happened to wind up or be born without knowing anything else...

You look at all those "happy" folks in the Matrix who seems to have the best of both worlds: have their steak, and eat it, too. They may have heard about the One or that there is such a thing as the Real Word somewhere out there, but basically, their ignorance about the Resistance movement is their bliss: they don't have to endure the hardships; they enjoy the protection of the Agents and the blessing of the Architect as long as they stay safely put right where they are, and don't think about dropping out of the game and becoming unplugged from the nice illusion they know as "life."

Yeah, life is tough in the Resistance. And if you thought Cypher was tough, in the real Resistance, we've had dozens of his kind who have sold us out to the Agents and are bent on destroying us.
Basically, all hell is breaking loose around our ears, because, after all, it's us they're fighting, and we are their enemies, not the make-belief "people of God" in sleepy-land, the artificially created world by the machines to keep potential resistance fighters asleep, dreaming and content.


If there is one factor that is not a parallel between the "Matrix" trilogy and the lives of those who claim to be true followers of Him Whom we know to be the One, it is that there will never be a truce between us and the machines.
There will only be an ultimate showdown; and as outnumbered as we may seem right now, and as overwhelmingly superior as the enemy forces may seem, and despite all the odds against us, we know and believe that in the end, He will win. No truce, no ceasefire, only undeniable victory, and we will see then what right now we may only be able to take by faith: it will be worth it all.