The question presupposes a person may be unworthy to take communion. And that taking communion when you are in an unworthy state has severe consequences.
I challenge that assumption. And I justify my answering the better question because Jesus often did not address the actual question, but addressed the issue at the heart of the question.
The word used was worthily, not worthy. Worthily is an adverb, not an adjective. The issue is not that the person is unworthy (that would be the adjective). The act of taking communion is what can be done unworthily. If you think that you have worthied up, confessed you sin so you are now not in danger of being unworthy, you have missed the point. And you are in danger of taking it unworthily. Let me explain:
John 13:12 Jesus began the Last Supper by washing the feet of the disciples. He said "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you."
Jesus was not talking about washing feet. Washing feet was only an example. The point is that what Jesus has done for us, we should do for one another. What has Jesus done for you? What did he do later that evening?
Jesus broke the bread and said, "This is my body, broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." If Jesus had said after he washed their feet, "This do in remembrance of me" would he be referring to allowing people to wash you feet in remembrance of him? Of course not. He would be talking about washing the feet of others in remembrance of him. When Jesus said do this, the this he was referring to was offering your body, broken for others.
Taking communion unworthily is receiving the broken body of Christ, and not reciprocating by offering your body, broken for others, and willing drinking the cup - even the cup that Jesus was reluctant to partake.
The 1 Corinthians 11:28-31 passage can be confusing, because of all the clutter. It wanders off on a few tangents, then come back on track and you can get lost in the redirections. Let me remove the clutter, then you will see how it makes sense:
1 Cor 11:28 But let a man examine himself, 29 not judging the Lord's body. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
In verse 29, the word discern is used, but it is the same Greek word translated judged in verse 31.
So what is the meaning of the unworthily part? When we gather together, if we judge one another instead of judging ourselves, we are in danger of having our judgments measure out to us again.
Matthew 7:1 Judge not that ye be not judged, For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
When we do to others what Jesus has done for us, we show forth his death until he comes. To do this properly, we need to remember how he did it. He did not consider himself the victim of a robbery, he did not play the role of the martyr. He laid down his life willingly. Be like minded. And that is what he meant by doing "this" in remembrance of him.
And how did he do it? 1 Cor 11:23 That the Lord Jesus the SAME NIGHT in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
How long is the proper period for holding a grudge? Jesus, on the SAME NIGHT. He is not asking to do what he has not done.
When we take communion worthily, we demonstrate the Lord’s death by passing on to others what we ourselves have received, remembering to deliver to others in the same spirit which it was given unto us.
