THE RULER AND THE CROSS

Jesus tells the disciples that He will not speak much more with them because "the ruler of the world is coming" (John 14:30). The ruler is Satan and the coming is his coming to kill Jesus.  Satan choreographs the events leading to the cross. The Pharisees, Pontius Pilate and the crowds are secondary causes of the cross. The first cause is Satan. The cross is a cosmic battle fought by Satan against God through human proxies who are dominated by their ruler.

Only one man in the history of the world had no foothold that Satan could use to rule him - Jesus! Jesus said, "he has nothing in Me" (John 14:30). The "in Me" (εν εμοι) is placed first in the clause for emphasis. The double negative added further intensity to Jesus' affirmation (ουκ εχει ουδεν). Literally Jesus says, "in Me not he has nothing." The clause is translated idiomatically in several ways.  "He has no claim on Me" (ESV).  "He has no hold over Me" (NIV). The ruler of this world could find nothing in Jesus that he could use to rule Jesus in any way.

Satan rules this world by finding flaws he can use to dominate people. We are all flawed by sin and Satan uses these sinful flaws to rule us.  There were no spiritual weaknesses or sinful flaws in Jesus. Pontius Pilate used a similar expression to announce that he could find no guilt (ουδεμιαν αιτιαν) in Him (εν αυτω) (John 18:38). Jesus was sinless as the author of Hebrews later writes (Heb. 4:15), but His sinlessness is more than merely a lack of sinful actions or behaviors.  Jesus claims here that His sinlessness is a "necessary causal condition" (Meyer, John, p. 424) for His freedom from the power of the ruler of this world. The sinless perfection of Jesus was intrinsic to His nature giving Satan no foothold in His life.

The sinless perfection of Jesus in His very nature is the necessary foundation for His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. Satan could seize nothing in Jesus to rule so Jesus could offer Himself as a sacrifice of love on the cross thereby defeating the one who had choreographed the crucifixion. Jesus freely gave Himself to show the world that He loved and obeyed the Father as He says in the next verse (John 14:31). The first motivating focus of Jesus on the cross was love for His Father. We take second place in the mind of Jesus. The cross was a free offering of love satisfying the Father on our behalf  precisely because Satan had no foothold in Jesus that he could use to defeat God's plan to save humanity from the ruler of this world.