Did Jesus simply vanish? Did his body merely become glorious? Or did something actually move?

Having said all this about Jesus’ absolute Divine sovereignty, it’s critical to register where the New Testament actually places its emphasis when speaking of the ascension.

The one who had been crucified, God ‘made … both Lord and Christ’ (Acts 2:36). The title ‘Lord’ (kurios), deployed more than one hundred times in the New Testament, asserts Jesus’ eternal deity — his nature and status as full and true God, co-equal with the Father.

Together with the resurrection, the ascension constitutes the physical — and visible — exaltation of Jesus. Luke gives us a narrative account of the event itself, first in brief compass at the close of his Gospel, then at greater length as he opens the book of Acts.

When he ascended, returning to God the Father, Jesus took his whole humanity — body and soul — with him into heaven.

The resurrection was never the end of the story. Even in the garden, on the morning of his rising, Jesus pointed his disciples beyond the empty tomb to what still lay ahead: ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’