Mark 10:50
"And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus." [KJV]
In the old testament and in the Jewish culture there was a way certain people were supposed to wear or behave for ease of identification. For example we learn from Genesis 38:15, that there was a certain way prostitutes covered themselves. And Tamar, when she discovered that Judah was not going to keep his promise of giving her to Shelah as a wife, as he had promised, she wore in a way to suggest she was a prostitute and trapped Judah into a tricky fatherhood.
Lepers would carry bells and ring them as the shouted they are on the way (Lev 13:45-46). This was mostly because the disease was highly contagious and also because leprosy was a sign of unholiness, it was possible to be unholy just by meeting or touching an unholy person or thing. This is also why when Jesus is giving the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-36), the scribe or the priest or the levite avoids to touch the beaten man; partly because he feared being defiled if the man was dead. In those days, a holy man simply touching a dead body immediately became unclean. Sometimes, becoming holy for just one day took days and months of cleansing.
What Jesus wanted to portray here using the scribe was how hard it was to choose between being good and being holy in the old covenant. For the scribe to be good and help the beaten stranger he had to risk wasting all the days he had spent in cleansing and defile himself. It also shows how Jesus in the end would have to take the sin of the world, defile himself and become sin, for the world to be saved.
Samson was not supposed to touch a dead animal because he was a Nazarite. But we see him defying all the odds and not only touching but eating from a carcas he had killed a few days before (Judges 14:9). This was a picture of the New Covenant, where it is not what you touche that will defile you, but what that comes out of you. Jesus puts it so well, saying, "It is not what a man eats that defiles him, but that which comes from his heart defiles a man. For from the abundance of the heart, a man speaketh (Matt 15:17-20)."
Therefore, in the New Covenant, you are not defiled by what you touch or eat, you are defiled by what you believe and confess with your mouth. Because, with the heart a man believes and with his mouth confesses to salvation (or dare I say, to damnation).
So, lepers also would wear in a special way and carry a bell, they'd ring the bell and shout, "Unclean! Unclean!" As they approached to notify the clean to clear the way. Other people who wore special garments were beggars. This was to avoid scammers!
It would surprise you to know that conning and scamming did not start yesterday. For the longest time, people have been pretending to be in need to take advantage of the kind hearted. Now, back in the days, the authorities decided that fir you to be a beggar, you needed to be certified as a beggar. One sign that you were a beggar was that you'd be given a certain coat to wear. That way, everybody that saw you, would know you are a real beggar.
When Jesus calls Bartimaus, the first thing Bartimaus does is to throw away the beggars coat. Even before Jesus heals him, he decides, "I am not coming back to begging anymore. Today is my day of changing the narrative!" Thinking in the area of how many people were following Jesus, losing that coat, meant that if he needed to come back to it, he'd not find it. Remember the coat was kind of a licence to beg. There must have been someone in the multitude, who had been to the government office several times, looking for a licence to beg and was not getting any. Remember beggars for as long as they've been around, rarely or never pay taxes on what they receive.
Even today, in ministry, the donations received are rarely or seldom taxed by many of the governments in place; except for a few administrations of course. So, being a beggar meant living a tax free life. In those days, one of the gifts that kings would do to appreciate a good deed was to exempt people from taxes. We see it when David comes to kill Goliath. King Saul had promised that whoever kills Goliath will have their family exempted from paying taxes among other gifts he'd give such a person (1 Sam 17:25).
One sign of faith is discarding any fall back plan.
As long as you still have a fall back plan, a plan B if believing in God doesn't work, you are still not believing enough for a miracle. Bartimaus coming with his coat would have meant that, if Jesus failed healing his blindness, he'd easily go back to his begging spot. But no! He had made up his mind, "Whether I get healed or not, I am not going back to that coat!"
Kinda reminds me of the three Hebrew boys: Shadrach, Misheck and Abednego. They said, "We know God can save us, but even if He does not save us from this fire, let it be known that we will not bow to the idol! (Dan 3:17)"
Nowadays, it is easy to believe God is going to heal you, while you're still taking scientific medicine or hoping from one doctor to another and trusting in doctors prescriptions. Yet, we can still be at a place where all else has failed and only God can do it. Like the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years (Matt 9:20). She had tried all, and had to decide, it is now or never. She did not have a fall back plan. Sometimes, God will push you until you reach a place where you do not have a fall back plan so that your faith can be visible. Jesus in another instance healed 10 leapers, but how He healed them was through their sign of faith.
He did not cleanse them instantly, he told them to start waking towards the temple and offer sacrifices of a cleansed leper. Their act of moving even before the miracle happened was a sign of faith. Joshua did not wait for river Jordan to part first for them to cross over, they stepped into the waters first and that is when the water stopped flowing (Josh 3:15). The blind man that Jesus healed by putting mud made of saliva and dust on his eyes and asking him to find his was to Siloam pool to wash of the mud (John 9:7). The man had to move before the miracle happened. Another time in Bethsaida, a blind man is brought, and Jesus instead of healing him right away, He takes him by his hand and leads him outside the city, heals him and tells him never to come back to that city (Mark 8:22).
My for you today is, stop waiting for the miracle to happen, stop waiting for a sign and asking God for a sign. Start moving before it happens, throw away any fall back plan, any plan B you may have. Throw it all away. Lean wholly on what God is about to do. Tell yourself, "I am ready for what God will do, and even if He does it not, I still will believe!"
May God bless you, may God keep you and may God lift you higher than I am. Shalom and keep the faith.
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