No One in Heaven?

John 3:1-17 contains the controversial statement that no one has ever gone into heaven except he who came from heaven, the Son of Man. How can that be? Did not Elijah go to heaven? We first need to understand the timing of the statement. Jesus had not yet ascended into heaven, yet he said that he had already gone into heaven. Was this past tense? Did he somehow ascend into heaven during his earthly ministry? Or is this in a prophetic use of past tense, like speaking from a future time when the ascension would have been past tense? There is another possibility. In Jewish culture it was accepted to speak figuratively of Moses ascending into heaven to bring the law (Jerusalem Targum commentary on Deuteronomy 30:12). What is clear is that only Jesus has come from heaven.