Luke 7:8

I also. The centurion had come to recognize from what he had heard that Jesus represented the authority and power of Heaven in the same way that he, as an army officer, represented the power and authority of Rome.

Under me soldiers. As the centurion was a representative of the Roman government, and yielded obedience to its commands, so the soldiers under him recognized his authority and obeyed him. He knew both how to receive and how to issue orders and see that they were carried out. A word from his superiors secured his obedience, and a word from him secured the obedience of his subordinates. Having already learned to recognize the true God as ruler of heaven and earth, the centurion now recognized Jesus as the representative of God. The centurion knew, no doubt, of the healing of the nobleman’s son a year earlier (see John 4:46-53), and must have heard of the many miracles Jesus had performed since making Capernaum the center of His ministry in Galilee. As in the case of the nobleman (John 4:50), a word from Jesus would be sufficient, and healing could be accomplished at a distance. As in the case of the leper, however, the question in the mind of the centurion was whether Jesus would be willing to respond to the request (see on Mark 1:40). The leper was an outcast from society because of his disease. Similarly, the centurion probably felt that he was not socially acceptable to the Jews because of his race.