Seeing Bartimaeus

Reading closely through Mark 8:27-10:45 sets up 10:46-52 wonderfully. The Bartimaeus pericope is the perfect ending to this section.
Firstly, Bartimaeus is in no doubt who Jesus is. When the crowds say that Jesus the Nazarene is passing, Bartimaeus cries out, "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me." Note the word order, not always preserved in English translations.
Secondly, note the contrast between the crowd and Bartimaeus. Mark skilfully sweeps his camera over Jesus, His disciples and the crowd, giving us in the brief mention of Jericho a sense of pace, then settles with telling detail on the solitary blind beggar. The crowds are caught up in the drama of the King's march to glory: they have not figured out that He is the Servant King (10:45). Jesus however makes Himself Bartimaeus' servant (10:51).
Thirdly, and this blew me away, Bartimaeus casts aside his cloak. That cloak was the item he might pledge, but would have returned to him at night according to Old Testament law. It was, as something that could be pledged, of worth, but Bartimaeus casts it aside to rise quickly and follow Jesus. Contrast that with the rich man of 10:22.
Fourthly, note the rebuke of the crowds yet Jesus' insistence they call Bartimaeus. We are back into 10:13-16. Bartimaeus, with his simple request, does receive the Kingdom as a child; but there was no learning from 10:13-16 that Jesus works that way.
Finally, although Jesus freely grants Bartimaeus his request, Bartimaeus follows. Those freely saved by grace, though technically free to go, always in fact follow, a road we know from the use of the verb in this section of Mark in Jesus' mouth, is a road that begins with a death - our own (8:34). So Mark clears us up on that: His death freely saves and that is that. Discipleship flows out of that. Our death to self is not meritorious, even if it is the keeping of the first four commandments (implicit in 10:21). It cannot save us; rather, we must first, like Bartimaeus, be saved and put into a state of salvation (Greek perfect) to become disciples. We must be raised (Greek in 10:49 can't be unintentional) to life by His call before we can then die.