**WARNING** This blog contains major spoilers for NCIS episodes S9.24 and S10.1

Although, I don’t watch it anymore, NCIS used to be one of my favourite TV shows. (I still enjoy re-runs of the old episodes though… I think they should have stopped at the end of season 11.) This blog is adapted from a short message I shared at church, soon after these particular episodes aired. Let’s call it a “revelation by TV.”

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NCIS. It stands for “Naval Criminal Investigative Services”. For those who don’t watch it, let me set the scene and explain the emotions that I went through. As a writer, I love to get really involved with the story: So, for you to understand my revelation, you have to understand how I felt.

It was nearing the end of the season, and all the episodes were building to a climax. There had been terrorist threats and terrorist attacks, fires and kidnappings. Something big was going to happen. Clues were getting thrown around like crazy… Someone was writing their will. Someone was about to get married… I mean, the season finale was called, “Til death do us part”! …I just knew that someone was going to die!

And so, it all came down to this one moment:

A car bomb, parked right outside the building where my beloved characters worked.

But which one of my friends was closest to the danger?? Which one was going to die???

Watch here:

The last minutes from NCIS’ Season 9 finale

…I sat there staring at the TV with tears running down my face.

No! Not him! Not like that!
Not Ducky! Not Ducky- who you thought of as your grandpa. Not Ducky- who had been there from the beginning. Not Ducky- who… who wasn’t even in harm’s way! …No!

…Of course, that was the season final. I could hardly bare the wait.

Why did it have to be him?!

Finally, the new season began and I eagerly sat down to watch it. Well, “eagerly” is not quite the right word, because it just wouldn’t be the same without Ducky…

But imagine how my sorrow quickly turned to joy when I discovered that Ducky was okay! He wasn’t dead! HE WAS ALIVE!

After that episode had finished I was so happy. I was so happy that I was dancing around the house. (You can ask my family.) I was so happy that I started singing to myself: lyrics from a random song I learnt as a kid. ‘He’s ali-i-ive….He’s ali-i-ive…Hallelu..jah….Jesus? is? Alive?’

Jesus is alive?! (Yes, they were the real lyrics.) I stopped dancing and just stood there for a moment, thinking… shocked:

And I get excited about some fictional character on TV??!?!?

It was almost embarrassing.

We learn this on the first day of Sunday School, but often we forget how MASSIVELY HUGE it is:

JESUS. IS. ALIVE!

A friend of mine watched NCIS too. Just before the new season, she texted me saying, ‘I’m not watching it. If Ducky’s dead, there’s just no point!’ She was joking- kind of- but could you imagine if she had stopped watching?! She would have forever thought that Ducky was lying on a beach, alone: dead!

That got me thinking…

What if the apostle Peter hadn’t run to the empty tomb? What if the disciples had never seen Jesus appear to them in that locked room? What if Thomas had never placed his hands in Jesus’ wounds?

What if Jesus was still dead?

Our entire faith centres around Jesus death. But the cross is bare and the tomb is empty!

JESUS. IS. ALIVE!

This is what sets Christianity apart from other religions. It’s what makes Jesus more than just another “good person”. Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist. Muhammad, Gandhi and Mother Teresa….Elvis. People worshiped and idolised as prophets and heroes- As people who made a difference.

They all have one thing in common: They’re all dead.

But Jesus? He is alive!

In 1 Cor 15.17-22 it says,

And if Christ wasn’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who die hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ.

(MSG)

When I realised that Ducky was alive, something came alive in me too.

…How much more then, on that day I found that- Jesus- is alive!