Standing waist-deep in the Jordan River John pauses thinking to himself, "Wait a minute, this is backwards." He says out loud, "Shouldn't you be baptizing me?" He is reassured that it actually works out exactly right if Jesus should allow himself to be plunged into the same river as everybody else. He'll later say, "This my Father loves in me, that I am laying down my life, to take it up again afterwards. Nobody can rob me of it; I lay it down of my own accord. I am free to lay it down, free to take it up again; that is the charge which my Father has given me." (Jn 10:17-18)
To receive baptism is to be baptized into Christ's death and to rise with him to new life. At the Jordan, Christ christens the waters of baptism which would become the sacramental means of salvation for the whole world through the ministry of the apostolic Church.