Luke 15:23-24 - Exposition

And bring hither the fatted calf . There was a custom in the large Palestinian farms that always a calf should be fattening ready for festal occasions. And let us eat … And they began to be merry . Who are intended by these plurals, us and they ? We must not forget that the parable-story under the mortal imagery is telling of heavenly as well as of earthly things. The sharers in their joy over the lost, the servants of the prodigal's father on earth, are doubtless the angels of whom we hear ( Luke 15:7 , Luke 15:10 ), in the two former parables of the lost sheep and of the lost drachma, as rejoicing over the recovery of a lost soul.