Thirty-six players, including both teams and substitutes, were sent off during a Paraguayan junior league football match that ended in mayhem.
In the last five minutes of the game, referee Nestor Guillen handed out two red cards, one to a player from each team, but the pair ignored him and continued their fight on the field.
In a matter of seconds, the clash spun out of control, involving players from both teams and all the replacements.
Rather than trying to end the brawl, the match officials ran off the field in fear!
For this reason, Hernan Martinez, president of the home club, Teniente Farina believes they had no other option but to dismiss all 36 players with a red card, since the official referees did not stay around to identify culprits.
Visiting Libertad club president Sixto Nunez said he thought the referees had shirked their duties in fleeing the scene.
We all deserve a red card
In the Bible, it says that we all, every single one of us, deserve to be “red carded” too. In the game of life, we have all done the wrong thing and ignored God. We haven't played the game as it should be played. Romans 3 puts it like this:
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And it’s not as if God is like the referee. He doesn't declare us all in the wrong, while he runs off in fear. God doesn’t shirk his duties. No, God is not afraid of us, and he doesn't run away from us. In fact, when we all sinned like this, God ran towards us. In the person of Jesus, God came to us to save us from our sin and rebellion.
Not getting what you deserve
So what about the punishment we deserve? Well, on the cross, Jesus was “red carded” for us, with the penalty of death, so that we could keep playing in the game of life. And even play on for eternity if we trust & follow him.
Check out some more of Romans 3
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
We sin, God saves.
We fall, God picks us up.
In return for our rebellion, God give us his mercy and grace, treating us better than we deserve. Jesus redeems us from our sin, declaring us righteous and restores our relationship with God.
This puts God in a league of His own.