Luke 15:28

But he was angry, and would not go in: and his father came out, and entreated him.

The persons primarily in view, as represented by the elder son, were the scribes, Pharisees, and other religious leaders of Israel. It was their anger at the Lord's inclusion of publicans and sinners as objects of heavenly grace which, in a large degree, motivated their hatred of Jesus. The fierce religious pride and exclusiveness of the leaders were but the metastasis of the cancer of selfishness within them; and their attitude toward others was an inherent contradiction of the purpose of God, whose love of all men Jesus had come to proclaim. The selfishness of the religious leaders manifested itself in their despising the Gentiles, but it did not stop there. Inherent in the nature of selfishness is the constant restriction and withdrawal flowing out of it; and the progression of selfishness in Israel's leaders had, in the times of Jesus, reached a level in which most of the chosen people themselves were also despised by their leaders. On one pretext or another, they hated everybody but themselves. Even of the multitudes of their own people, the Pharisees said, "This multitude that knoweth not the law are accursed" (John 7:49).

And entreated him ... This speaks of the tireless efforts of Jesus to persuade the Pharisees to believe in him. All of the gospels are eloquent in detailing the constant preaching of Jesus to this very class.