We know that this is a covenantal Table. The cup is explicitly called the cup of the new covenant. But covenants have sanctions; when the covenants of God are abused by faithless men, He does not just sit idly by. At Corinth, Paul explains that some there were sick and some had even died because of their self-centered abuse of the Table. That abuse was measured by their willingness to squabble with fellow members of the same loaf.
Our temptation, in these days of feel good religion, is to forget that God is a jealous God, and that He guards His sacred things with sanctions. If we grow in our scriptural understanding to the point where we believe sanctions are a possibility, we assume that they will take the form of an unmistakable lightning bolt from the sky, and all mankind will see that “that person was bad.” But the work of the Spirit is often far more subtle (not always, but often).
In some instances, the sanctions come in the form of what can easily be dismissed as “coincidental” troubles. No one could prove that these difficulties in the business, or marriage, or in family relations, or health are the result of hidden sin. No one knows but the Spirit, and the person who is running from the Spirit. And the person who is running should certainly stop and consider the possibilities.
In other instances, the sanction comes in the form of an increasing awareness (a tangled awareness that combines relief and anguish) that the day of repentance is gaining on you. You may now know that the day of repentance is inevitable, and that you will have to confess, and make restitution, and seek forgiveness from others you have wronged. But the strength and humility for that task seems beyond you. Yet every time you come to the Table, there it is, again.
But this is good news, not condemnation. This bread and wine remind you weekly that it will be put right, you will repent, you will seek forgiveness.