(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

People's New Testament

11:2 It was that Mary. As there are several New Testament Marys, John points out this one by the well known incident of the anointing described in Joh 12:1-11.

Wesley's Notes

11:2 It was that Mary who afterward anointed, and c. She was more known than her elder sister Martha, and as such is named before her.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, &c.-This, though not recorded by our Evangelist till Joh 12:3, was so well known in the teaching of all the churches, according to our Lord's prediction (Mt 26:13), that it is here alluded to by anticipation, as the most natural way of identifying her; and she is first named, though the younger, as the more distinguished of the two. She "anointed THE Lord," says the Evangelist-led doubtless to the use of this term here, as he was about to exhibit Him illustriously as the Lord of Life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-6 It is no new thing for those whom Christ loves, to be sick; bodily distempers correct the corruption, and try the graces of God's people. He came not to preserve his people from these afflictions, but to save them from their sins, and from the wrath to come; however, it behoves us to apply to Him in behalf of our friends and relatives when sick and afflicted. Let this reconcile us to the darkest dealings of Providence, that they are all for the glory of God: sickness, loss, disappointment, are so; and if God be glorified, we ought to be satisfied. Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. The families are greatly favoured in which love and peace abound; but those are most happy whom Jesus loves, and by whom he is beloved. Alas, that this should seldom be the case with every person, even in small families. God has gracious intentions, even when he seems to delay. When the work of deliverance, temporal or spiritual, public or personal, is delayed, it does but stay for the right time.