Mark 10:46-52
Bartimaeus Threw Off His Cloak
46Next, they came to Jericho. And as Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho with a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road.
47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48Many people admonished him to be silent, but he cried out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man. “Take courage!” they said. “Get up! He is calling for you.”
50Throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and came to Jesus.
51“What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “Rabboni,” said the blind man, “let me see again.”
52“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Berean Standard Bible
This is the last stop before Jerusalem. On the way out of Jericho, Mark stops long enough to hand us a name.
as Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho with a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road
Consider who else Mark has shown us: a leper, a paralytic, a man with a withered hand, a woman who touched his cloak in a crowd, a boy whose father could get nobody to help. Descriptions, all of them. This one arrives with a name and a father's name attached, which is how you identify a man people could go and ask about.
He hears that Jesus of Nazareth is going past and starts shouting. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David is not a courtesy title. It is a claim: God had promised David a descendant whose throne would last, and Israel had been holding that promise for centuries. Peter had said something close to it up north, in private, and was told to keep it to himself. This beggar is yelling it in the open, outside Jericho, in front of a crowd.
Many of them tell him to be quiet, and he gets louder. Then Jesus stops. He is walking toward the city where he will be killed, and he has just refused two of his closest friends the thing they asked him for, and he stops in the road for the one man the crowd was trying to shut up. Call him, he says. The same people who were hushing him turn around inside a second: take courage, get up, he is calling you.
Bartimaeus throws off his cloak and jumps up, which costs him more than it looks. A beggar's cloak was his working equipment, spread out in front of him to catch whatever people threw, and his blanket when the night turned cold, and possibly everything he owned. He leaves it lying in the dirt to go to a man he cannot see. Set that beside the man earlier in this chapter who could not leave his property and went away sad.
What do you want Me to do for you? Jesus asked. Rabboni, said the blind man, let me see again.
James and John had that same question put to them when they came asking for thrones. Now it goes to a blind beggar, and Mark lets both answers stand without telling us what to make of them.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
The road out of Jericho is the road up to Jerusalem. He goes up it.
How We Know
Mark names this man and his father: Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. The people healed around him go unnamed. The woman with the bleeding is not named, and neither is the man in the tombs, the deaf man, or the blind man at Bethsaida.
Mark does the same thing at 15:21 with Simon of Cyrene, adding that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus.
Naming a person and his family, in an account written while such people could be asked, is consistent with detail carried for identification. Verse 52 adds that he followed Jesus along the road, which is the road to Jerusalem.
Questions
1 What is different about the way Mark introduces this man?
AnswerHe gives him a name and his father's name. The leper, the paralytic, the man with the withered hand, the woman in the crowd: Mark describes those people and leaves them unnamed. This one he identifies, the way you identify somebody who could be found and asked.
2 What is he claiming when he shouts Son of David?
AnswerThat Jesus is the promised king from David's line. God had promised David a descendant whose throne would last, and Israel had been waiting on it a long time. Peter had said something close to it in private and was told to keep quiet. This man shouts it on a public road.
3 Why does throwing off the cloak matter?
AnswerA beggar's cloak was his equipment and his bedding, spread out to catch whatever people threw, and possibly everything he owned. He left it in the dirt to go to a man he could not see.
4 Have you stopped asking God for something because you felt awkward about wanting it that much? What does Bartimaeus do when the crowd tells him to stop?
AnswerHe shouts louder. He does not tidy himself up first or wait for a better moment. He is blind and begging and has nothing to bring except a shout and a coat he is willing to lose, and Jesus stops on the road for him.
What This Means for Us
The crowd told him to be quiet, and the crowd was wrong. Something like that happens to most people who want God more than the room is comfortable with, and the pressure rarely arrives as opposition. It arrives as embarrassment, which is much harder to stand up under. He got louder.
He also did not wait until he was respectable. He was blind, he was begging, and he had a shout and a coat he was willing to lose.
So if you have gone quiet about something you want from God, ask again. Where somebody can hear you.
Prayer
Father, we go quiet when wanting you looks like too much. Thank you for stopping on a road for a man everyone was trying to hush. Give us the nerve to keep asking, and make us willing to leave behind whatever we are sitting on. Amen.