Jesus now tells another parable designed to shatter our preconceptions of who "will go to heaven". Luke was writing for a mainly Greek audience, so makes the purpose clear, pointing out that there were those who were confident of their own righteousness. More than that, they looked down on everyone else.
So Jesus tells a parable of two men standing in the temple praying. One is a self-righteous Pharisee, praying proudly before God. He boasts of the good things he does, and looks down on various "sinners", in particular the tax-collector who is also in the temple.
In contrast the tax collector knew that he was a sinner and approached God as a sinner, pleading for mercy. Jesus declares that it is the tax collector who went home right with God. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord.
This theme continues with the little children. People were bringing their children to Jesus and the disciples rebuked the parents for doing this. So we see that it is also the followers of Jesus that need to watch their attitude and can have many misconceptions. Ie you and I need to watch our attitudes. Jesus declares that we need to receive the kingdom as a little child.
So the two parables tell us that we need to come in humility, aware of our own sin, and we need to guard against being full of our own cleverness.
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