At such an early point in time, Jesus separates the Church from the State and refuses to mix religion with politics. Throughout his mission, Jesus proposes a vision for Christianity; he distances himself from the designation of king. For him the kingdom is both in this world and not in this world, revealing the levels of bondage under which people are living. In the first reading Isaiah addresses a similar situation; the Persian King Cyrus, a foreigner to Israel becomes the currier of Israel's most urgent hopes and, in today's readings, he is most remarkably identified even as anointed, a messiah.Isaiah transfers all the authority of the Davidic tradition to this gentile king because God brings about historical transformation through human agency, which need not necessarily be the Church; a lesson long forgotten throughout the history of Christianity, since Constantine in the 4th Century. It was only thanks to prophetic and faithful reformers that Christianity did nor succumb completely to politics. It is true that religion flourished in many circumstances under the security and guarantees of politics. But with politics parting company with religion, the church was called to stand up and be counted in a culture and socoety no longer considering God to be and the human being as religious by nature.
