Matthew 26:12

12. Did it for my burial It is supposed by some that Mary had either been informed by our Lord of his approaching death, or even that she had some prophetic presentiment of it. It may be remarked that, for the sake of propriety, our Lord was regularly accompanied by twelve male disciples; but the Gospels take care to assure us that those who believed and loved him were not all men; but that woman in her place was not less true to his divine claims than man. Of this fact Mary is the most striking instance; and the meek, silent, and sudden manner in which she comes from her retirement, perhaps from her place of prayer, where the sad future of our Lord may have been intimated to her, into this feast, and performs this act of sorrowful affection, is a special exemplification. It may well be thought possible that our Lord communicated to her a clearer knowledge of his approaching death than to his disciples. Or it may be that to her, as to a divine love, was imparted the spiritual presentiment of the truth. And yet, finally, it is very possible that she acted from the simple impulse of love; and that our Lord himself, giving it a higher meaning, elevated the act into a prediction of his approaching burial. Just so the words of Caiaphas (John 11:49-53) had an unconscious prophetic import.