The readings for Pentecost 20 are taken from Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians 4:4-13; and Matthew 22:1-14. God provides super-abundantly, in every way, beyond our imagination. Isaiah describes a feast parallel to Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet and Paul includes relief from worries and refence to all things wonderful in God’s creation.
Isaiah describes a feast of God’s making—He destroys the surface of covering of this world of human invention so we can see the kingdom of His creation and He swallows up death forever. This is our God. We wait for Him, and He saves us.
Paul wrote to the Philippians about the power of God’s feast for us—it causes rejoicing, expels worry, and sets before us an endless spectrum of virtue and beauty in His creation for us to meditate on and hold in our consciousness.
Matthew records Jesus telling the parable of a wedding banquet. God is the source of everything good—a great example is a feast to which He brings us. God not only feeds us, but He also dresses us for this feast in the perfect life of Christ. That feast is ruined when a corrupt ego makes us think we bring something to it or that we decide if, when, or how we will come to it. The man without a wedding garment has no defense when confronted with a simple question and is then cast out. This part of the parable is part of God’s antidote and vaccine against our own corrupt human nature.