Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

And when his disciples heard of it--that is, the Baptist's own disciples. they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb--"and went and told Jesus" (Mat 14:12). If these disciples had, up to this time, stood apart from Him, as adherents of John (Mat 11:2), perhaps they now came to Jesus, not without some secret reflection on Him for His seeming neglect of their master; but perhaps, too, as orphans, to cast in their lot henceforth with the Lord's disciples. How Jesus felt, or what He said, on receiving this intelligence, is not recorded; but He of whom it was said, as He stood by the grave of His friend Lazarus, "Jesus wept," was not likely to receive such intelligence without deep emotion. And one reason why He might not be unwilling that a small body of John's disciples should cling to him to the last, might be to provide some attached friends who should do for his precious body, on a small scale, what was afterwards to be done for His own.