Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus
(Mark 10:50)
Bartimaeus who heard the disciples saying, “The Lord is calling you” threw his cloak aside and jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. This sentence is quite dynamic. Three verbs throw, jump and come get connected. Could this be a literal technique of Bartimaeus to express his urgent state of mind?
Here the expression of throwing his cloak aside has a great symbolic meaning. According to the Bible annotators, there are some transformed phrases. A certain transformed phrase describes that the blind man throw on his cloak before going to Jesus. The cloak has been spreading out for almsgiving on the street. And the others suggest that the blind man formally put on his cloak before a great teacher to show his respect.
Why does it vary in this manner? Though a certain insistence suggests that an oriental tinge has been added to the former and the latter was modified in the Greek way of life, it is hard for us to come to a specific conclusion. However, the important point we can learn here is the author’s deliberate effort to deliver the blind man’s high spirited emotion to the reader.
Though I may mention it in detail in the following verse 51, we can fully imagine how he was in such a status of high spirit. He should hang only on one fact. His status of being healed from his blindness is the most significant moment of his life. Compared to this aesthetic joy in his life other matters seems unimportant to him thereby making him throw his cloak aside. We also should throw it aside in times emergency.
Those who have not yet entered into the urgent status of the blind man neither know what the significance of cloak throwing aside is nor feel the necessity of this historic incidence. Lord! Have mercy on us!
3 comments:
Also I have heard it was the cloak might have been painted, so peopke would know to help a blindman, and he threw it before he was healed displayed his faith.
This is the comment I have been searcing for. It portrays the truth I was taught when I came to Christ in 1975. Heart belief leads to faith which is then expressed by action.
I have learned that in those time a blind person would wear a cloak that would tell others about his blindness; much like today's white and red cane and the dark glasses or even a guide dog. but the fact is that Bartimaeus was so convinced that he would be healed the moment Jesus called, that he was prepared to tell the world and show them..."Look! I ain't blind no more!" When answering the call of the Master and the readiness to leave all behind is an act of faith and surely you will never be the same ever again..shalom
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