Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 8:9

"For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." — Matthew 8:9 (ASV)

For I am a man under authority — He gives, not without a certain naïveté, the process of reasoning that led him to this conviction. His own experience had taught him that in every well-organized system, a delegated authority could, in turn, be delegated to others. The centurion's personal presence was not needed when he could send his soldier or slave to act on his orders. Might he not reason from this analogy, and infer from it that in God’s kingdom also, One whom He endowed with power would have His ministers at hand—the unknown forces (personal or otherwise, he did not care to ask) that govern life and death—to execute His will?