John does not provide a narrative
of Jesus’ ascension, but he does refer to the ascension by quoting Jesus as
saying to Mary Magdalene, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John
20:17). The immediately preceding words, on which the just-quoted “for”-clause
depends, read, “Stop touching me.” It is hard not to understand John as saying
that the risen Jesus not only appeared physically to Mary but also ascended to
appear physically before God his Father. Sometimes Jesus’ command to stop
touching him is taken as an indication of his essential nonphysicality, as
though he meant to say that Mary should learn to think of him from then on in
different terms. But he gave the reason why Mary should stop touching him. It
was not that he did not want to be thought of as physical. It was that he now
needed to ascend to the Father. And when he came back that evening to breathe
the Holy Spirit on the disciples he showed them his scars and a week later
invited Thomas to feel them. Apparently, ascending to the father changed
nothing with regard to his physicality. Thomas did not feel the scars, not
because he could not have done so or because Jesus did not want him to but
because the physical reality was so visually unambiguous, after the ascension
as before, that he did not need to (see John 7:37-39 for the necessity that
Jesus ascend to the Father between appearances so as to give the Spirit in the
second appearance). (Robert Gundry, “The Essential Physicality of Jesus’
Resurrection according to the New Testament,” in The Old Is Better: New
Testament Essays in Support of Traditional Interpretations [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 178; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005; repr.,
Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2010], 181)
