Scripture Study for

Abram’s meeting with Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the same God Abram worships (Numbers 24:4, 16), occurs after  Abram has defeated a group of Canaanite kings who have taken his nephew Lot as a prisoner of war (14:12–17). The offering of bread and wine is an act of hospitality that may also be a sacrifice,  although this is not stated. In any case, the priest calls down God’s blessing on Abram and blesses God for the victory given to Abram over the kings. The “tithe” Abram gives is a tenth of the spoils of his victory. Drawing on the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110,  the author of Hebrews will associate his priesthood with that of  Christ (7:1–25), which in later Christian tradition will add greater significance to the offerings of bread and wine. 

Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians of the tradition of the institution of the Lord’s Supper flows from his criticism of their conduct during their own celebrations. By acting selfishly and shaming those who are poorer, they “show contempt for the church of God” and so betray the ethos that lay behind the Lord’s own sacrifice, which they are not only to remember but also to which they are to conform themselves (1 Corinthians 11:17–22, 27–34). Proclamation of the death of the Lord until he comes cannot be merely verbal but must be enacted in the self-giving of each member of the church. The “cup of the new covenant in my blood” reflects the sealing of the first covenant of Sinai with “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8).  Just as the Sinai covenant was rooted in the previous covenant with the ancestors, so the new covenant sealed with Jesus’ blood is an extension of the older covenant. 

Luke’s account of the feeding of the crowd ties it closely with his account of the Last Supper (22:19–20). In both scenes Jesus  “takes” the food, “blesses” it, “breaks” it, and “gives” it. In the present scene, Jesus enacts the eschatological, messianic banquet, in which God provides abundantly for all, so that no one goes without or suffers, and even death is conquered (Isaiah 25:6–9). The verbal parallel between this scene and the institution narrative of the Last  Supper invites the reader to see the intrinsic connection between  God’s care for our material needs and God’s care for our spiritual needs through the ongoing “feeding of the multitude” in the banquet initiated in the new covenant.