Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Towards the end of the second installment of the Matrix trilogy, Matrix Reloaded, we see our heroes running for their lives after their ship has been ruined. Coming up right behind them is a mob of machines, called sentinels, ready to have them a machine dinner. All of a sudden Neo stops. Trinity questions his action, thinking something’s wrong. Neo says, “Something’s different. I feel them…” He then lifts his hand up as if to say, “stop”. The sentinels come charging at him, and with a sort of non-contact nudge from Neo, the sentinels are fried and are stopped in their tracks, falling to the ground. Neo also collapses and goes into a coma.
For a long time, I didn’t understand this. For those of us that know the Matrix movies, we know that anything is possible in the Matrix - as long as the mind is strong enough. But they weren’t plugged into the Matrix at this point. They were in the real world! How was Neo, who is just as human as anybody else when outside of the Matrix, able to do this? It confused me, and my lack of understanding even dismissed it as a plot hole.
Then, upon my [insert double digit number here] time viewing the film, I finally got it! Neo said he could feel the sentinels. He could feel them within him; down to his bones. He stopped. He turned around and faced them head on. He figured if he can feel them, they can feel him. That’s when he releases all his energy, transferring it into the sentinels, and ultimately imploding them from within. Obviously, with no energy left, Neo collapses into his coma.
He felt them.
They felt him.
This made me think. And this thought made me even more excited than finally understanding this scene that had confused me for so long:
We feel God.
God feels… US?!
In the book of Genesis when Abraham is pleading for God to spare any righteous that may be in Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe God felt Abe’s burden and his yearning for this city. There was nothing in it for God. There was no special interest or conflict of interest. He agreed because He felt what Abraham felt.
In the end, the terms of the agreement weren’t met so God destroyed the city anyway, but still, He was moved to even consider an agreement. He was moved to consider changing His plans. Why? Because His heart grew heavy as Abraham’s heart grew heavy.
God was moved from the anger He felt to the compassion that Abraham felt. I used to get compassion mixed up with “to feel sorry for”, but that’s totally missing the mark. Compassion is “a deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it”. Thinking on compassion, God gave me this: Compassion is not giving a homeless man a dollar. Compassion is giving a homeless man a roof. And a meal. And the knowledge of how to succeed so he doesn’t have to be homeless anymore.
God, in His compassions, doesn’t just feel sorry for us; He feels a deep awareness of us. He FEELS us.
For in Him we live and move and exist. - Acts 17:28
I will dwell in them, and walk in them… - 2 Corinthians 6:16
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us… we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. – 1Corinthians 2:10-12, 16
We don’t belong to God. We are not God’s property. We are a part of God. We are one. We live and exist in Him. He dwells and walks in us. We feel Him. He feels us.
Towards the end of the second installment of the Matrix trilogy, Matrix Reloaded, we see our heroes running for their lives after their ship has been ruined. Coming up right behind them is a mob of machines, called sentinels, ready to have them a machine dinner. All of a sudden Neo stops. Trinity questions his action, thinking something’s wrong. Neo says, “Something’s different. I feel them…” He then lifts his hand up as if to say, “stop”. The sentinels come charging at him, and with a sort of non-contact nudge from Neo, the sentinels are fried and are stopped in their tracks, falling to the ground. Neo also collapses and goes into a coma.
For a long time, I didn’t understand this. For those of us that know the Matrix movies, we know that anything is possible in the Matrix - as long as the mind is strong enough. But they weren’t plugged into the Matrix at this point. They were in the real world! How was Neo, who is just as human as anybody else when outside of the Matrix, able to do this? It confused me, and my lack of understanding even dismissed it as a plot hole.
Then, upon my [insert double digit number here] time viewing the film, I finally got it! Neo said he could feel the sentinels. He could feel them within him; down to his bones. He stopped. He turned around and faced them head on. He figured if he can feel them, they can feel him. That’s when he releases all his energy, transferring it into the sentinels, and ultimately imploding them from within. Obviously, with no energy left, Neo collapses into his coma.
He felt them.
They felt him.
This made me think. And this thought made me even more excited than finally understanding this scene that had confused me for so long:
We feel God.
God feels… US?!
In the book of Genesis when Abraham is pleading for God to spare any righteous that may be in Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe God felt Abe’s burden and his yearning for this city. There was nothing in it for God. There was no special interest or conflict of interest. He agreed because He felt what Abraham felt.
In the end, the terms of the agreement weren’t met so God destroyed the city anyway, but still, He was moved to even consider an agreement. He was moved to consider changing His plans. Why? Because His heart grew heavy as Abraham’s heart grew heavy.
God was moved from the anger He felt to the compassion that Abraham felt. I used to get compassion mixed up with “to feel sorry for”, but that’s totally missing the mark. Compassion is “a deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it”. Thinking on compassion, God gave me this: Compassion is not giving a homeless man a dollar. Compassion is giving a homeless man a roof. And a meal. And the knowledge of how to succeed so he doesn’t have to be homeless anymore.
God, in His compassions, doesn’t just feel sorry for us; He feels a deep awareness of us. He FEELS us.
For in Him we live and move and exist. - Acts 17:28
I will dwell in them, and walk in them… - 2 Corinthians 6:16
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us… we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. – 1Corinthians 2:10-12, 16
We don’t belong to God. We are not God’s property. We are a part of God. We are one. We live and exist in Him. He dwells and walks in us. We feel Him. He feels us.
Are you feeling It?
- Eli
Agree? Disagree? Something to add? Leave a comment!
