In receiving Baptism and then going to the desert to pray, Jesus was consciously undergoing a deep spiritual preparation for his public ministry. In his ministry he often did or said things that astonished people because they were unexpected and apparently contrary to the ways which people were familiar with.

Similarly, his decision to undergo John’s baptism greatly astonished John, and it has cost scholars ever since a great deal of thought to try to explain what his baptism meant, since he was Son of God and entirely sinless. Yet his decision makes a great deal of sense in the context of his life and ministry. Jesus came on earth to be Emmanuel, “God with us”. He explained that he had come to find the lost and the straying. Pope Francis has challenged us to realize and acknowledge that we are sinners. The crowds who gathered around John to receive baptism acknowledged that they were sinners and were looking for a sign of God’s mercy. Where else then, would Jesus be except in the company of such hurt people, people to whom he had come to bring the fullness of God's merciful and forgiving love?