I do not like math, but I understand it serves an important purpose in our world. Jesus had a way of doing math that confused and called us to rethink our world. For example, Luke records in Luke 15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” That is weird math – 1>99! Of course, Jesus is talking about souls. It is not God’s will anyone be lost, and God is willing to leave the ninety-nine to go and look for the one which went astray.
Another example of Jesus’ weird math is found in the Gospel of Matthew. Here, Peter asks Jesus about forgiveness. Should I forgive my brother up to seven times? (Matt. 18: 21) To the First Century Jew this would have been a lot – you might even say a perfect number of times to forgive. So, for them this made sense. But here again, Jesus does weird math: “Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” In other words, there is no perfect number of times to forgive your brother. You should forgive your brother an endless number of times, so long as they are willing to seek forgiveness.
Your high school algebra teacher might not like this kind of math, but you don’t need to know algebra to make it to heaven. You do need to listen to Jesus and His weird math. How much different and better would our world be if we taught children from a young age to do math like Jesus!