The bodily resurrection of Jesus—the reanimated, physical man—is an important part of New Testament theology, one beclouded by dogmatic accretion and in great need of disambiguation. The ascension seems to play right into this: Jesus, fully embodied, is lifted to the clouds. Yet I don’t think that bodiliness plays much of a role in early Christian theology of the ascension, and especially not in either texts in Luke and Acts.
What, then, does the ascension do in Luke’s work? I find three functions. First, it signals the end of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. Theophany on the road to Damascus notwithstanding, the disciples no longer expected to see their Rabbi: they knew he was now at the right hand of God. His rising into the heavens provided the closure a simple vanishing would not have. Second, it is the consummation of Jesus’ exaltation. He was victorious over death, had presented himself as proof, and though already glorified and ‘transfigured,’ the ultimate glory would be reached in the heavens. Just so ends the Gospel of Luke.
I find the third function, the flip side of the first, the most interesting of all: the beginning of the inspired, apostolic, evangelizing congregation. The ascension ends the Gospel and begins the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus had told them that he would leave, but he would send pneuma hagion, and it would give them everything they would need. Indeed, he would have to leave for it to come, and it was to be the critical element in their witnessing.
Jesus’ personal earthly work was concluded. His ascension fixed the change in his disciples from students looking for their teacher to evangelists preaching and teaching the kingdom. The ascension inaugurated the execution of the great commission.
