Crucifixion or the Ascension?

I have been intrigued recently on the passages from the Gospel of John which take place in the Upper Room at the time of the Last Supper. What is interesting is the context and the content of Jesus' words. While the context is the night before the crucifixion, the content has often been used (including in the liturgy) as text about the risen Christ ascending into heaven.

John's gospel is different in many ways. He does not give us the familiar narratives of the Last Supper nor of the Ascension. Instead, the second part of his gospel, often called the "Book of Glory," focuses on the crucifixion (the supreme moment of Jesus' glorification) and the resurrection (the epiphany of Jesus' glory). Some scholars have suggested that the prayer of Jesus before the crucifixion has post-resurrection material read back into it. Of course, Jesus could have prayed this basic prayer every night with his disciples. The thing to recognize is that many passages from the crucifixion context "work" in the context of the ascension, which says something about the glory of both. For example:

13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God...

13:19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I AM.

13:31-33 Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'

14:1-12 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

14:15-20 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."

16:7-8 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment...

16:28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

17:4-5 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

17:11-15 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.