The chief executive officer of a manufacturing firm got into the habit of showing up in the production area unannounced. Sometimes he would take off his coat and tie, roll up his sleeves, and help on the assembly line. One of the bolder employees asked him one day, "Why do you do that?"
"I don’t know a better way," the CEO replied, "to catch the pulse of what the workers think and feel. I don’t know better how to see things from their point of view."
When he returned each time to the solitude of his office, he had indeed gained something he would not have had, had he not spent time out with "ordinary" folk.
Jesus’ baptism was a sort of "going down to the production line." He certainly did not have to do it. Some wondered why he did it.