They were always talking about it, always murmuring back and forth, always asking the question. The buzz was heard in the streets, argued in the synagogue courtyards, and chewed on around the dinner table. Pharisees and scribes debated it; women pondered it while managing their homes; children giggled about it with awe and wonder. The disciples were afraid to breathe it with more than a whisper.

 “Could he be the Messiah?”

Jesus brought the question into the open. “Who do people say I am? Who do you say I am?” True confession time, disciples—what are you really thinking? The Greek word translated “confession” is homologeo, a compound of two words meaning “same” and “to speak.” Literally, people during the time of the New Testament saw confession as “saying the same thing,” agreeing with the evidence.

The Good Confession
“Some say you are Elijah.” Jewish tradition held that Elijah would appear prior to the coming of the Messiah. Some were saying Jesus was Elijah—not the Messiah, but the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. “Some say you are one of the prophets come back to life.” Obviously Jesus was considered a powerful teacher—and only someone anointed by God could perform these miracles. Jesus must be a prophet. Nothing wrong with that—a good declaration of this man Jesus.

The Great Confession 
Could he be the Messiah?  The disciples pondered that possibility as Jesus pressed, “But who do you say that I am?” What is this Messiah supposed to be like? He will teach like no other prophet or rabbi. The words that come from his mouth will be the very words of God.

He will perform many signs and wonders. He will be able to do miracles. He will heal the sick. He will cause the lame to walk. He will make the blind see. He will have the power of God in his fingertips.

He will deliver his people from their oppression. The disciples, no doubt, sighed at this last thought. In their time they felt it meant they would no longer be under the rule of the tyranny of the Roman Empire. What must it take to overthrow the forces of Rome? The Messiah will need to be a mighty warrior. He will raise armies and restore the grandeur of David’s kingdom.

But moreover, when the Messiah comes, people will follow him. They will have to; we will have to. We will have no other choice. Peter needn’t chew any longer: “You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

The Grim Confession
The other disciples may well have wondered, Does he realize what he just said? Jesus must have grinned as he commended Peter’s perception and boldness. “You have made a confession that you didn’t learn from a book or gather from a rabbi. You have said the same thing about me that my Father has declared. God bless you for that understanding.”

Their hearts leapt with joy and fear. It was finally coming true! Centuries of Jewish hopes and dreams were about to be realized in this complicated man from Nazareth. Can you imagine their confusion as Jesus continued teaching? He swore the disciples to secrecy, making them promise to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

From that point on, he began to make it clear to the disciples that it would be necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, endure an inordinate amount of suffering, be put to death at the hands of religious leaders, and be raised from the dead on the third day.

“Impossible, Rabbi! I will never let that happen to you.” Peter’s confessions were honest and idealistic, if nothing else. Jesus solemnly corrected his direction. “You don’t understand how God works. You’re confessing again—but this time you’re not saying the things of God, but the things of Satan. If you want to follow me, you are going to have to go where I lead. And right now, you cannot even fathom where that is going to take you.”

The Glorious Confession
I remember it as if it were yesterday. My first personal confession. Do you remember yours?

The water in the elevated baptistery was “take-your-breath-away” cold. The lake effect and the close surroundings made the preacher’s bass voice boom and reverberate. “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?” Teeth chattering, I made “Yes” a four-syllable word. “Then because of your confession of faith, you are now being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

Your image of a confession in the church may have similar markings. It may be erroneously flavored with the sound of a litany of sins presented contritely to a clergyman. Perhaps your idea of confession is peppered by the sigh of admission from a browbeaten individual on a witness stand, confessing what the evidence had been screaming throughout the trial.

Move a step beyond those pictures. Biblical confession—saying the same thing that God says about his Son, about your sin, about the only way to have glorious hope—is more a lifetime declaration than a sentence in a baptistery.