Recently, a friend asked me a simple question: “Does going to church make you feel better?” I wanted to respond with an emphatic yes. Instead, I hesitated and muttered an abrupt, unconvincing, “Yeah… I guess.” As the words slid out, I felt awkward and anxious. Had I just made church sound too simple, like a pill that instantly fixes feelings of pain, anxiety, or hurt?
It begged a deeper question. Was church meant to fabricate for us an ignorance of reality?
The Matrix Illusion
It may feel as if church is tasked with a mission of illusion, like the 1999 movie The Matrix.
Let me explain.
The Matrix is an artificial reality people unknowingly live in. You quickly learn that people can be set free from the illusion by taking a red pill. Alternatively, they can choose to stay by swallowing a blue pill.
One freed character we meet is Cypher. Cypher is the plot twist character who betrays his crewmate Neo. Neo is the betrayed savior figure of the movie. He was predestined for a mission to save all humanity from the Matrix.
To escape the Matrix, both Neo and Cypher took the red pill. When they woke from the simulation, it was evident the real world was not full of hope. It was a stark contrast from the Matrix—a cold, dark, and hopeless reality.
Cypher tells Neo, “Why didn’t I take the blue pill?” which reveals to us his inner desires. Cypher thought it was better to live artificially in the Matrix than in the hopelessness of what was real.
Ignorance is Bliss
Cypher loathed the real world so much it led to a deal with the Agents to re-enter the Matrix. For re-entry, he must turn over Neo.
The deal is finalized over dinner and once the deal is done, he utters his infamous line to the Agents. He presents to us his way of living “the good life”:
“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist.
I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.
After nine years, you know what I realize?”
He pauses and smiles.
“Ignorance is bliss.”
Cypher makes his position clear. It’s better to ingest a lie. He would rather fake reality.
For us today, we would rather Facebook than face reality. We would rather give the impression of “a good life” through social media posts. We often find ourselves posting ignorant lies day after day.
I often remain blissfully ignorant, unaware that my life isn’t as pretty as I make it seem. I think Cypher would have preferred a Matrix-style church. It would give him a virtual reality headset of happiness. To him, it’s far better than experiencing pain, anxiety, or hurt.
My View of Church
I viewed church this way for quite some time. Even when I became a “mature” Christian, I still thought church’s primary function was to make me happy.
Maybe my reality was shaped by my experiences. I mean, experience has taught me that happiness is only a click away.
For instance, my Amazon app is readily available 24/7. I can order anything with the tap of my thumb. Then it will be delivered to my front porch by the next day for free!
Experience says just buy the newest iPhone — a new car — a newer house. It tells me more stuff will make me happy.
Just go to church — that will make me happy.
Church Is Not an Escape
But the Church isn’t an artificial plug-and-play simulator. Jesus isn’t Tylenol I take on a Sunday when life is giving me a headache. I don’t scroll the church app to order a little self-help for immediate delivery.
The purpose of the Church isn’t to make me happy. It’s meant to make me holy. The Church points me to the Day of bliss.
Pardon me for speaking in Christianese. Holy means Jesus uses the Church to refine, mold, and guide me.
It’s good to understand that one of the purposes of the Church is to guide. This purpose does make me feel better, but not because it’s a magic pill. I feel better because I can’t fake reality. The Church takes me out of the Matrix. It forces me to lean into the pain, grief, and suffering of the world.
So I don’t go to church as a consumer but as a recipient of good news. It doesn’t mean I won’t receive good things.
God can give me good things through a church. That’s just not His intent for the Church.
What Jesus Actually Promised
In fact, Jesus promises the opposite of worldly happiness to His followers.
He tells the disciples:
Matthew 5:11
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Matthew 16:24
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…”
Jesus’s idea is not a life of blissful ignorance. It’s the hard walk with our cross out of the valley to the peak of blissful glory.
True Joy, Not Artificial Bliss
Following Jesus means a life of sharpening, refining, and realizing we need to look beyond this world for happiness.
It does not mean we will not experience happiness or joy in this life. What it means is there is a greater joy on the way.
The Church points me to that Day.
I don’t go every Sunday hoping to find the best worship music, preacher, or ornate sanctuary. I go to church to find a Hope that will not fade. A Hope that has come and will come again.
Jesus came and did promise forgiveness of sins in this life. This definitely makes me happy. However, He doesn’t just set me free from sin. He won’t just let me rot forever in a hopeless world.
Where Neo stops in The Matrix, Jesus continues the mission.
He says one day there will be no more pain and no more sorrow. All physical ailments, heartache, anxiety, stress, and hurt will all be gone.
Jesus says we won’t know when, but one day He will come again. He will come on clouds of fire, accompanied by an angel army. Nobody will be able to hide from the coming judgment. Every knee will bow to the King.
But for those who trust in him — He will approach, He’ll reach out his hand and touch their shoulder.
Then He will say:
“Do not be afraid!”
That is why I go to church.
Because unlike Cypher, I will get to live in a world of Jesus-filled Bliss.
Maybe you’ve been fed a church of illusion like the Matrix?
What do you think of the claim that Church is not meant to make you happy but holy?
Lit Lamp For The Soul 
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