Firstly, I'm going to buy a ticket which is proof of my payment. Proof because I might lie and get in for free. I get to the front of the queue and see the ticket seller on the other side of a window and we communicate via the microphone and speaker system installed. This level of protection is necessary for their safety, presumably. I use my bank card to pay. This is a sophisticated piece of plastic that should mean that my transaction is secure on the one hand, and shows I am whom I say I am on the other. I've failed to sign the back of my card as I have not found a single pen that writes on it so I need to show my driving license as well to prove my signature is indeed mine.The cards are passed via a sliding drawer that prevents me grabbing the ticket seller's hand and, well, doing what I don't know. I sign and duly receive our tickets and my receipt. Another proof of payment. Now, the tickets are pretty special too, designed to be difficult to forge with lots of colour printing and a couple of hologram type metallic logos. There are tear off strips so that the ticket cannot be re-used after entering the ground. When we do enter later just before 3pm the said strip is removed by the guy on the entrance (oh, after my manbag has been searched...) and he pushes a button to allow the military grade full height turnstile to move and let me in. Phew!
Then we go and watch a game where one of the players' main objectives is to mis-lead the officials into giving favourable but incorrect decisions. When they don't, they get verbally abused.
It's a funny old game.
The game of "What if there was no sin?" helps me to see just how desperate is our need of Jesus. We can forget, especially on a sunny day when your team wins again(!), that this place is in a real mess and that is why He had to come and lay down His life once and for all.
"And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
