Isaiah 11: 3b-4 “He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.”

For many of us, nothing feels more certain than mathematics — it seems the closest thing to objectivity. Yet even something as seemingly certain as parallel lines cannot be proven; it must simply be assumed. In the early 19th century, Nikolai Lobachevsky recognized this fact and proposed an alternative geometry in which, through a point not on a given line, infinitely many lines can be drawn that do not intersect the given line. This radical idea reshaped mathematics and has allowed physicists and mathematicians to better understand the nature of space.

As someone who is admittedly “bad at math,” what strikes me about Lobachevsky’s discovery is his courage to think in a radically new way. Instead of starting where everyone else had, Lobachevsky decided not to play the game at all. His reasoning might have felt counterintuitive or even radical at the time, and yet it has proven to be immensely fruitful, even if its fundamental postulate can never be proven.

When I read Isaiah 11:3-4, I can’t help but think of Jesus in a similar way. Here is a man who will, “not judge by what he sees with his eyes” but “with righteousness will judge the needy…” Jesus, like Lobachevsky, is committed to approaching things from a novel perspective. It may be true that our neighbors are sinful, annoying, and possibly even criminals. But, it may also be true that those very same people are desperate for someone to listen, to bear with them in their iniquities, and extend a hand of compassion. In a world where political parties determine whether your neighbor is worthy of respect, showing unconditional love and curiosity towards others might be as radical as changing the rules of mathematics.

Of course, like parallel lines, there is no way to officially prove that our new approach is correct — but we might just surprise ourselves with what new things we discover.

Jim Besaw