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     The nativity of John the Baptist is calculated from that statement of the angel Gabriel who said to Mary that Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy.  That would mean that Jesus would have been born six months later.  The Gregorian calendar, on which you and I live, did not exist at that time, but once it came into use, and the birthday of Jesus was adopted as December 25, then the birthday of John the Baptist had to be set at six months before - so, June 24th was chosen.  Calendar or no calendar, babies take nine months (more or less) to develop!

     Long before that date was decided, the Christian community had to deal with the status of John the Baptist.  He had his own disciples (even Jesus was considered one) and many of them thought John was the messiah  The evangelist Luke, who wrote both the gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles crafted the story of John the Baptist in such a way that although John was a great preacher, he was basically the advance man or herald or precursor for Jesus.  He was definitely a colorful one and seemed more like a messiah to many people than a carpenter from Nazareth.  As Nathanael says in the Gospel According to John: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" [John 1:46]  Even Jesus' own hometown folks rejected him, as Luke also reports. [Luke 4:16-30].  Once John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus began to become more active to the point that John sent emissaries to check him out. [Luke 7:18-30].  The Christian narrative for John the Baptist is basically contained in Jesus' reply to those messengers.  John was great, but Jesus is THE messiah.

     One lesson we can take away from all of this is that anyone who claims to be a "messiah" has to be told that the Job is filled and no applications are being taken, not even from very holy preachers.  AMEN