9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:
10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: 'God, I thank you that I'm not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'
13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner!'
14I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
15People were also bringing infants to him so that he might touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
16Jesus, however, invited them: "Let the little children come to me, and don't stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
17Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."