Contemporary culture describes a change of mind or heart as different-colored pills. A black pill represents dark, cynical, and pessimistic ideas. A white pill represents good news and cheerful and optimistic ideas. If you take either, it will change your outlook or disposition. This is a take on the red and blue pill from the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix. The main character, Neo, has been living in an illusion, and his life has been a lie. A prophetic figure named Morpheus confronts him to wake up from the dream.

Morpheus says to Neo, “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.” The problem for Neo is that the truth is stranger than fiction and more challenging to handle than he could imagine. The original blue and red pills of “The Matrix” are far different from our idiom’s white and black pills. 

The focus of the white and black pills is often how they make us feel. Does it cheer us up or bring us down? Does it upset us or make us happy? Does it offend us, or is it harmless? Our emotional response should be true to the reality of a thing. For example, we are disgusted when we see gross displays of immoral and deviant behavior. Or when the Christian faith is mocked in a televised pageant, we are shocked and offended. Or when we receive an act of kindness, we respond with sincere thanks. And when we witness the beauty of God’s Creation, we respond with awe and wonder. The truth of the thing has an honest emotional response. 

But because we are more interested in how something makes us feel, we’re less interested in what is real and fake, true and false, that is, the stereotypical red and blue pills of “The Matrix.” We consume the blue pills that keep us ignorant. We lie to ourselves and to others. We live in illusion, mist, smoke, and mirrors. Apply Chat-GPT to your resume or a filter to your profile image. The world is full of deception because it has been given over to the Deceiver himself. It’s all fake and plastic.

But God wakes us up from our slumber, the deep sleep of a life of lies, illusion, and deceit. He gives us “the red pill” of truth. He is honest, brutally so. The doctrine of sin is always based on a lie, just as the Serpent originally asked, “Did God really say?” Christians are given in faith to be honest about themselves, their sin, the world, and the charms of evil. And Christians are given to fear, love, and trust in Jesus’s blood-bought forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation. 

This is the truth that is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The whole proclamation of the Christian Church is to speak the truth, and the calling of every Christian is to believe what Jesus says. We’re not given only to take the white pills and leave those ugly black ones for the gloomy types. No, we’re given to consume the whole scroll of God’s Word, bitter and sweet. We are called to be honest and true, not liars and fake. 

This begins with trusting what Jesus says, which He promises to work by His Holy Spirit working through that Word. This same Word promises to change your heart and mind, especially through the gifts of preaching, teaching, Absolution, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. And as Jesus reveals the truth of your heart, this world, and His kingdom, you will start to see everything for what it truly is. And receiving the truth of Jesus, He will give you to discern and flee what is not good for you and your salvation, and to pursue what is good, right, and true. May God grant it in Jesus’ name.