Thoughts on the Ascension: Where did Jesus Go?

Had a random thought pop into my head the other day. It was a clip from an apologetics debate I witnessed some seven or eight years ago (yeesh has it really been that long?!). It was 'The Great Debate' between Dr. William Lane Craig and a less well known Atheist on the existence of God. While I don't remember Dr. Craig's opponent I remember one of his points. The Biblical account of Jesus' ascension was problematic because assuming that he did ascend, where did he go? Up up and up he went but how far up? Did he leave the atmosphere? How did he continue to breathe or not freeze or get blasted by the sun's radiation? At the time my only thought was that he royally missed the point of the whole thing. But after almost a decade the point has come back to me now and I see it anew.

Where exactly did Jesus go? To heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, obviously. But why ascend? Heaven isn't in the clouds, it is a spiritual place, not somewhere you can get to in a rocket ship. It's a whole other plane of existence, why go up when any direction or no direction at all would suffice? I mean, he could have opened a door and walked into heaven, he could have vanished in a puff of fire and smoke, he could have taken the disciples with him in an instant and then once they had seen him there he could have brought them back in an instant. Why ascend when ascension isn't functionally necessary?

I find it interesting that another person also ascended into heaven, Elijah on a chariot of fire. That must have been a sight to see. And I think this is important on a few points.

Ascending was not the means by which Jesus or Elijah got to heaven. You can go up and up and up as far as you like to the end of the universe but you will not reach heaven that way. Ascension is a sign for us down here, a miraculous and wondrous sign. Most people naturally equate the heavens (the sky) with Heaven (God's specific realm). The connection is natural to anyone who has looked up at night and witnessed the glory of the stars and the wonder therein. Even though God's realm isn't physically in the sky the symbolism is universal. Dead things get buried in the earth, God's holy ones are taken up into heaven like Enoch and Elijah and Jesus and all even those in stories from other faiths.

Consider also that in a very real way God's ways are higher than our ways and we are fallen creatures in a fallen world. Mankind looks up to see God and God by his grace raises us up, up from the dead, up from our sin, up from our knees, up out of the mud and mire, up to be with Him.

Consider also the language of the Psalms when Yahweh rides upon the clouds and sends lightnings and winds from the corners of the earth. There are also the visions of God by the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets, God is always above them on the mountain, in the sky, in heaven with angels ascending and descending a ladder between heaven and earth! The imagery is everywhere in the Bible and it resonates with those who know it.

It was the symbol and the sign for which Jesus ascended. The disciples were not astronomers or scientists, but ancient fishermen and tax collectors. It would have done no good to instill within them a knowledge of modern astronomy, that misses the point. To them, what they saw, was Jesus ascending until a cloud hid him and then angels confirming that he had gone up into Heaven. Symbol, sign, reality, it all blended together and even though heaven is not actually 'up there' in a physical sense, it really didn't matter. Jesus was taken up, just like Elijah was, and from this ascension we know that we also will ascend at Jesus' return. It is the symbol of hope and the sign of The Father's resounding 'YES' that Jesus is The Son and that He will indeed restore and save all who put their faith in Him.

They saw with their own eyes Jesus ascending into heaven and their lives bore the imprint of this event forever after.