“The Importance of Being Merry”

Luke 15: 23, 24, 32: “… bring the fatted calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry … and they began to be merry … we had to be merry and rejoice.” We all know the point of this famous parable, right? The conversion of the lost. But if that were really the case, Jesus could have stopped talking at verse 24. But it goes on to tell about an older brother who had never been merry, and three times mentioning that, given the occasion, they had to be so also. Coming on the heels of two other parables about the virtue of mirth, perhaps we should rethink Luke 15. Is it the repentance chapter, or the Merry Chapter?