“For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
Matthew 8:9 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 8:9
The Lord having taught His disciples on the mount, and healed the leper at the foot of the mount, came to Capharnaum. This is a mystery, signifying that after the purification of the Jews He went to the Gentiles.
This centurion was of the Gentiles, for Judaea had already soldiers of the Roman empire.
All these things he recounts with grief, that he is 'sick,' that it is with 'palsy;' that he is 'grievously afflicted' therewith, the more to shew the sorrow of his own heart, and to move the Lord to have mercy. In like manner ought all to feel for their servants, and to take thought for them.