Mortified!

I die every day! 1 Corinthians 15:31


In the movie The Matrix, the enigmatic Morpheus offers the hero Neo an unsettling choice. Was Neo willing to discover the truth about his existence? Doing so would mean intentionally dying to his comfortable shadow-life within the Matrix. But embracing his own “death” to unplug from a world of robotic make-believe was the only way for Neo to become truly alive, awake, and free. 

Long before The Matrix, St. Paul challenged God’s people to embrace this same basic spiritual truth: we must die to truly live. It’s true; slumbering in sinful habits and spiritual slavery can appear deceptively comfortable, even as the process drains us numbly of our very souls. But choosing such a false life assures we remain controlled and manipulated by our Enemy. 

Choosing death each day seems a terrifying choice, as we contemplate what the cross of Jesus truly means. But each day we wake, we trace the sign of the cross over our hearts, as we reaffirm our Baptism into Jesus. Our death is forever joined to His. His new life, by God’s grace, becomes our own. 

As a result, sin no longer has power over us. Those deceptive dreams have little appeal for us now, for we have embraced the death of Jesus and arisen, forever alive and awake, in Him. 

Jesus, Your death and life have set me truly free. In Your holy name I pray. Amen.