Passage
It was [the] Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
John 11:2 (DBY)
Nearby Context
John 11:1 Now there was a certain [man] sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and Martha her sister.
John 11:2 It was [the] Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
John 11:3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
John 11:4 But when Jesus heard [it], he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "mary", "anointed", "lord", "ointment", "wiped", "feet", "hair", and "whose". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mary" and "anointed", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 1's "Now there was a certain man sick..." into verse 3's "The sisters therefore sent to him saying...", so "mary" and "anointed" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "mary" and "anointed" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.