One wonders how many of the stallholders were back at their old pitches the following morning.  Probably the majority, but no doubt there were some vacant places in the lines.  Those who stayed away did so for one of two reasons.  Some of them had no scruples about the way they had been going on, and would have been back again as usual if they hadn’t been afraid of Our Lord and of what he might do.  But others stayed away because Jesus had made them genuinely ashamed of their irreverent and unscrupulous conduct and they were truly anxious not to offend God again.

And that is the sorrow which has to be ours: not a fear which may prevent us from sinning but does not prevent us from desiring to sin if we could or if we dared; not that, but a love for God that becomes a resolute determination not to wound his love again.