Walking With Christ

Mark 10:50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.(ESV)

Let’s dig into some context on this one since the verse itself is so vague.

Bartimaeus was a beggar in Jericho. He was blind, hence the monicker Blind Bartimaeus. A lot of people don’t realize the true depth of this verse. In those days, a person had to be authorized to be a beggar. They had to have permission to live that kind of life. There wasn’t much tolerance for those who just didn’t want to work. Anyone who was begging without being permitted to do so was would face any number of possible consequences. There were strong social stigmas against simply being lazy or unwilling to work. Many would simply ignore the person not wearing the beggars cloak, as it was called. Some would actively discourage or harass the faux beggar to encourage them to move on or go find work. While the traditional Jewish laws were very strong on taking care of the poor, widowed, orphaned, and strangers; being lazy or not being recognized as a person in need meant that someone begging would not have received any kind of favorable response.

Bartimaeus was a legitimate beggar. He was blind, after all. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was coming to town he started yelling as loud as he could in the hopes that Jesus would hear him. He begged for mercy. Again and again, he cried out into the darkness hoping that the light would shine upon him.

People chastised him, they rebuked him, and told him to be silent. The harder people pushed him to be silent, the louder he got.

Then Jesus called him.

Bartimaeus jumped up and ran to Jesus. He threw off his cloak and ran to Jesus. Jesus called for him but he wasn’t healed yet. What is the significance of him throwing off his cloak?

He knew, without any doubt at all, that he would not need that cloak ever again if he had an encounter with Jesus. He knew that one moment with Jesus was all he would need to dramatically change the course of his life and ultimately his identity. He would no longer be Blind Bartimaeus. He would be the Bartimaeus whom Jesus healed.

He was a beggar before, but he knew that if he could get to Jesus everything would be changed forever. He threw off his old identity and ran towards the one who would give him his true identity. When he threw off the cloak, he left behind his old life, his olds doubts, and even his old sins.

Let me encourage you today to think about how your life would change is you had a personal and intimate encounter with Jesus. What would change in your life? Why hasn’t it change already? He already paid for everything on the cross. All of the gifts that are available to us in this life are ours. They are just waiting on us to have enough faith to pick them up.