Have any prominent theologians written on what the ascension looked like? Some postmodernists believe the picture of Jesus floating up into the sky like a balloon is absurd. I remember C. S. Lewis saying (in Miracles) that we don't necessarily have to believe that if we believe he ascended. But are there any commentators, pastors, church fathers, or theologians who have written on what it may have looked like? More specifically than just parroting Luke's account, that is.


  And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
I took a quick survey of mentions of the word ascension at CCEL.org, and got a few comments from theologians.
From Augustus Johann Neander, Life of Jesus Christ in its Historical Connexion and Historical Developement [sic], section 306:

... Christ did not pass from his earthly existence to a higher through natural death, but in a supernatural way; ... he was removed from this globe, and from the conditions of earthly life, to a higher region of existence in a way not conformed to the ordinary laws of corporeal existence or to be explained by them.

From Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. II, Part III, Chapter XIII, section ii:

From these accounts it appears, (1.) That the ascension of Christ was of his whole person. It was the Theanthropos, the Son of God clothed in our nature, having a true body and a reasonable soul, who ascended. (2.) That the ascension was visible. The disciples witnessed the whole transaction. They saw the person of Christ gradually rise from the earth, and “go up” until a cloud hid Him from their view. (3.) It was a local transfer of his person from one place to another; from earth to heaven. Heaven is therefore a place.
... In opposition to this Scriptural and generally accepted view of the ascension of Christ, as a transfer from one place to another, from the earth, as one sphere of the universe, to heaven, another, and equally definite locality, the Lutherans made it a mere change of state, of which change the human nature of Christ was the subject.

From John Gill, [Doctrinal Divinity], Book V, Chapter 7:

this ascension of Christ was a real motion of his human nature, which was visible to the apostles, and was by change of place, even from earth to heaven; and was sudden, swift, and glorious, in a triumphant manner: and he went up as he will come again, in a cloud, in a bright cloud ...

All these, except Neander, were Reformed theologians, as I understand it (Gill was a Baptist, Hodge a Presbyterian—but correct me if my understanding of the divisions of Protestant denominations is lacking), and all three seem to have the idea that Jesus did in fact physically &quot;rise up on high&quot; (though Neander's &quot;removed from this globe&quot; is subject to interpretation on this front). Though Hodge mentions the Lutherans in particular as interpreting the Ascension more analogically than literally, he does state that this is a less accepted interpretation.