This Table is all about grace, forgiveness, kindness, and acceptance. God receives you here. This is the normal way we ought to think of it.
Not only does He receive you here, but he does so knowing all about your sins. Jesus said that this was His blood of the new testament, which was to be shed for many for the remission of sins (Matt. 26:28).
His blood was not shed in order to provide the world with yet another prohibition, another tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His death was to be a restoration of the way back to the tree of life, a tree that was not prohibited to our first parents. Neither is it prohibited to us. We are invited, summoned, called, importuned, and commanded to come, and to do so gladly.
We are not coming to yet another fault-finding accusation. That is what we are leaving behind. We are not coming to a censorious Deity, upset with us for arriving late, disheveled, or a little dirty. He is glad we have come, and He bids us welcome.
But we must know, for He has plainly told us, that we are taking our place at His table, not as a reward for being good, or for being comparatively better than others who were worse, or for being on His side. We are accepted, completely, but we are accepted as sinners who have had their sins forgiven.
Forgiven means that your sins are washed away. Put away forever. Removed from you, as far as the east is from the west. God has taken your sins out to the middle of the ocean and deep-sixed them. We shall never hear about them again, either here or in the resurrection. That is what this cup represents. That is what this cup means.
And this is why the Table is not a place for gloomy or morbid introspection. This is a Eucharistic Table, a table of thanksgiving and gladness. How could it be understood and be anything else? God forgives sinners.