Now Jesus here gives us a New Testament equivalent of what happened in Daniel 5, that is, He calls it "discerning the signs of the times." He castigates the crowds, the great multitudes that were following Him, and they kind of, you could say, represent all of mankind, for being so self-absorbed and distracted that they had missed the whole point of His work and message, which He had done right before their eyes. He did all of that work and said all of those things, did all those miracles, did all those exorcisms, and they still did not get why He was there or recognize who He was.
In Matthew 16:1-3 (we will not read it), He directs His anger at the Pharisees for the same thing. The Pharisees should have known better.
So whether it was laymen or leaders, without the right perspective and ability to judge righteously, we are as good as blind. We have no idea what is coming up or why things are happening. We cannot discern what is going on, and we certainly will not discern what is coming up.
