Ascension 

Basic Info

Acts 1:1–11

Matthew doesn’t mention Jesus’ ascending into Heaven. The Gospel of Mark does but in the section that scholars think was added long after the rest of the Gospel. John alludes to it but doesn’t provide detail. Luke-Acts is the primary source of the ascension material. The Gospel of Luke ends with a report of Jesus’ ascending to Heaven, seemingly on the same day as the Resurrection. Acts reports the event occurring 40 days after the Resurrection and recounts that Jesus is lifted up and enveloped in a cloud. Two men in white garments then appear to the 11 Apostles and Mary (Jesus’ mother), telling them that Jesus had gone to Heaven and would return the same way. Sometimes the Ascension is conflated with images of the Resurrection in the artistic tradition.

The theological distinction between Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven and other assumptions into Heaven (Mary, Elijah, Enoch) is that Jesus went under his own power whereas the others needed divine assistance.

This is the moment where Jesus finally says goodbye to his followers after instructing them again in the meaning of his Resurrection and commissioning them to go forth and spread the Good News. It affirms the idea that even resurrected, Jesus had a body. This contrasts the Docetist heresy, which asserted that matter is inherently evil and so Jesus could never have had a real body—that he looked human but wasn’t really.

What to Look For

• Divine attributes (cloud, mandorla, floating, etc.)
• Jesus’ posture, gestures, expression, and gaze (glad to be returning to the Father, a little uncertain about leaving the human race in the hands of these human beings, sad to be leaving them, pious, etc.)
• Mary’s role in the scene
• The Apostles’ and Mary’s postures, gestures, expressions, and gazes (sad, scared, awe-filled, joyous, etc.)

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

What does the artwork seem to say about the miraculousness of the Ascension or the group in whose hands the future of Jesus’ message has been left?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

Notice the attitudes of the disciples to this event. Were they ready to take on the mission Jesus left them with? Assuming that you are an heir to these disciples, which one of the disciples in the artwork best reflects your attitude toward Jesus’ continuing mission?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation

What might have been going on theologically in the artist’s time and place that caused the artist to focus on this event (heresies; too much emphasis on the divine side of Jesus, causing the faithful to forget his humanity; or too much emphasis on his humanness, forgetting that he ascended to be with the Father)?