Neville Goddard on Luke 5:33-39 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Luke 5 in context

Scripture Focus

33And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?

34And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?

35But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

36And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.

37And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.

38But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

39No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

Luke 5:33-39

Biblical Context

Luke 5:33-39 contrasts fasting with the bridegroom's presence, teaching that the new reality cannot be contained by old forms. The wine and garment parables show that renewal requires a new inner state and new containers.

Neville's Inner Vision

Consider that the disciples represent states of consciousness, not outward groups. The bridegroom is your I AM, the living presence you already are. When you feel his companionship, you no longer measure life by ritual abstinence but by the abundance of the moment. The question of fasting arises only when you suppose separation from the joy you are; but with the bridegroom near, your inner meal is now. The parables warn that a piece of new consciousness cannot be sewn onto the old mind; the old garment cannot contain the new vision, and the old wine cannot bear the new wine of awareness. So you must not patch the old you with new beliefs. Create a sanctuary within where the new wine is kept—in other words, cultivate new bottles: trust, expectancy, and gratitude born in the present. If you insist on the old and the familiar, you will forego the synthesis; but when you align with the present I AM, the old order dissolves and the whole life is preserved as a fresh, living kingdom.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in stillness and assume the Bridegroom is here now; revise any sense of lack into fullness and feel the new wine already poured into your renewed inner vessels. Continue to dwell there until it feels real, not imagined.