This Table is the culmination point of all that we have done in assembled worship. Here all the hymns, psalms, prayers, amens, confessions, and heedings converge. This is the place where it all comes down.
As we never tire of reminding you, it does not do this because it is a magic table, or because it is some kind of machine grinding away by itself. No, this is the place where God promises to meet His faithful disciples, with His blessing, and faithful disciples means just that—full of faith, coming in faith, arriving in faith, expectant joy in faith.
If a husband promised to meet his wife for lunch at a certain restaurant, she could arrive there with every expectation of seeing him. But this would not involve any ideas of it being a magic restaurant, or a place that would drag her husband there if he forgot. It is the meeting that blesses, it is the relationship that strengthens.
We are taught this in many ways. The bread is before You, but Jesus is really the bread. The bread is before you, but you are really the one loaf. The blessing here is the promised meeting of the Lord with His people.
If the wife shows up at the restaurant only to quarrel with her husband, or resolved to hide certain things from him, the restaurant remains a meeting place, but not for blessing. It is the same here. This meeting is intended for blessing; the cup is called a cup of blessing. We assemble, not in terror or fear, but in expectation of blessing. There have been those who willfully hide their sin, or stubbornly cling to it, but that kind of willfulness does not define the table.
Those who minimize the use of this table through fear of abusing it are like wives who never agree to meet with their husbands for fear of saying something wrong in the conversation. This is why we come weekly. We assemble to meet with our Lord on the first day of the week, and we do so according to His appointment. If we fear that we are coming wrongly, then it is apparent that we need to practice it more.