Bartimaeus is one of the poorest and most marginalised members of his society. Unable to see, he is forced to beg on the road outside the city of Jericho and is entirely dependent on those who would toss him coins.

The passage that we have today is not the first healing of a blind person in Mark’s gospel. However, compared to Jesus’ previous healing of a blind person in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) there are some significant differences that emerge.

In Bethsaida the blind man is brought to Jesus by a group of people, most likely friends or family. In the reading that we have today many in the crowd actively try to silence and dismiss an isolated Bartimaeus as he initially cries out to Jesus for help. In Bethsaida Jesus touches the blind man to heal him. In today’s reading Jesus announces that Bartimaeus faith has enabled his healing. In today’s passage, Jesus asks Bartimaeus about his needs, while in Bethsaida, there is no discussion prior to the healing taking place. There is also no Christological confession in Bethsaida whilst in today’s reading Bartimaeus confesses Jesus as the Son of David right from the outset.

The significant differences between the two healings are important when you consider where this encounter takes place in Mark’s gospel. The story follows on from Jesus’ teaching on entering the Kingdom of God which he makes clear, in his conversation with the young rich man, involves a giving up of material wealth and privilege for the benefit of the poor (Mark 10:17-31). It also involves serving others in humility (Mark 10:35-45). However, in giving up we receive so much more through our participation in God’s Kingdom.

Bartimaeus is entirely dependent on begging for his income and his ability to serve others would have been limited. There was very little that he could afford to give up. The majority of Bartimaeus’ time and energy would have been focused on daily survival and subsistence. The healing that he receives is transformative in the way that it empowers Bartimaeus.

Yet, since it was his faith that played a central part in his healing, Bartimaeus’ new life is not something that is simply imposed upon him but a result of the outpouring of his own faith and the relationship that he initiates with Jesus.

In Bartimaeus story there is a much stronger sense of the dynamic empowerment that comes from a relationship with Jesus that relies on our response to God’s grace.

While Bartimaeus would be extremely poor he possessed one item of value: his cloak. The cloak would have provided Bartimaeus with warmth and shelter in cold and wet weather, a covering to sleep on, and could be used to collect money on the street. In short, it would have been essential to his survival. The abandonment of the cloak in the encounter with Jesus (Mark 10;35) and the implication that it may have been left behind when Bartimaeus gets up follows Jesus is hugely significant. Bartimaeus is letting go and giving up the most valuable thing he owns. This fits with what Jesus has already declared in Mark’s Gospel; that giving up and letting go is integral to discipleship and the way of the Kingdom.

As the passage starts with Bartimaeus sitting on the side of the road, stuck and static, it ends with him dynamically walking with and following Jesus on the road. The questions that we might therefore ask ourselves, based on this reading, is how our faith in Christ might enable us to give up and let go? Are we able to embrace the gift that God offers us in Christ so that our lives might be empowered and transformed for service in his Kingdom?