Weird widget adapter

I’m still not really sure what misconception lead to this class:

public class StatusBar {
   private JTextField status;

   public void setStatus (String status) {
      this.status.setText(status);
   }
   public void clearStatus () {
      this.status.setText("");
   }
   public JTextField getStatus () {
      return this.status;
   }
}

I can’t comprehend why they didn’t just extend JTextField to add their methods instead of doing this weird wrapping. This violation of encapsulation principles really hurts somehow.