The Scriptures teach us that this is a spiritual meal, but we must exercise great caution as we think of it this way. This is not because there is a problem with how the Bible describes it—obviously not—but rather because a number of false assumptions about the nature of spirituality have crept into our thinking over the centuries.
A spiritual meal is not an ethereal meal. It is not an intangible meal. What does it mean to be spiritual then? The answer is that the spiritual man is the obedient man, not a ghostly man. A carnal man is a disobedient man, not a material man.
The Christian faith is by no means earthly—but it is extraordinarily earthy. The Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father in the heavens, and He rules all things from there. Because Heaven and earth have been joined back together in Him, we can rejoice in the materiality of that which He has given us. He has given us the world—and it is precisely for this reason that we are not to be worldly.
The world does not contain the principles for its own organization, and whenever it tries to organize itself, the results are worldliness, carnality, earthly-mindedness. But when the world surrenders to Heaven, the Lord of Heaven gives us the world.
We see this in the bread and wine. This is material bread, and material wine—just like bread and wine everywhere. We in the Church have the authority to take bread and wine from absolutely anywhere, and to pronounce the words of institution over them. When we do, it becomes a spiritual meal, that is, a meal brought to the obedience of Christ—just as you partakers are being brought to the obedience of Christ.
Every time we partake of this meal, we are engaging in a solemn oath, in which we recognize that God has laid claim to us, and by which we also declare that that Lord Jesus has laid claim to the entire world. That is what He was born into the world to do. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.