1 February 2026

“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are…” Matthew 5:1-3a

Greetings in the name of Jesus!

“The words of Jesus that open the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, are some of the best-known passages of Scripture. In them, Jesus declares various conditions of people “blessed”. Too often, they come across as hard demands (the ‘be-attitudes’, as someone once called them), which will leave all but the arrogant despairing. But when we look beyond the surface, we find that they teach us what we can expect from Jesus himself. And since every Christian has been made one with Christ, the life described in the Beatitudes becomes a beautiful blueprint for Christian ministry, and for the Christian life: not as a demand, but as God’s gracious gift.” 
Pastor Tapani Simojoki