His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him. – John 12:16
John is referring to the triumphal entry, Jesus entering Jerusalem with the news of his resuscitation of Lazarus going before him. They did not see him riding a donkey and the palm branches being laid down by the people as the picture of a prophecy of long ago. They did not get it until the end, until Christ ascended and the story of Christ on earth ended.
Of course they could not get it, not while they were in it. When you are in it, you don’t care too much about the meaning of it all because you are still trying to create the end yourself. They were all imagining how this entry is going to end for them, a throne and some section of Jerusalem redistricted to them. They did not get it until Christ ascended and they finally accepted the purpose of Christ. When they accepted the mission of Christ, then everything that happened made sense. The Scriptures came alive!
This is true of others. We don’t get the meaning of a person’s life until the end (and I don’t mean the casket only). So it is foolish to be jealous or judgmental. No one has it all and no one is beyond usefulness. We don’t understand the meaning of a person’s life so it is best to not judge at all and simply love them.
Likewise, we don’t get our life either, not until we see Christ. So we don’t need to too harsh or too proud. What is bad now might not be bad at all, and what seems good now can be the fruit that banishes us. We simply trust Christ and follow, through the Palm leaves as well as up Golgotha. At the end, it will all make sense and we will have fulfilled God’s purpose, which is another way to say the fulfillment of a prophecy. God has a prophecy over every one of us.