5 When Jesus came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him, 6 and saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”

7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

8 The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel. 11 I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, 12 but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.

14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and served him. 16 When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick; 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases.”

Matthew 8:5-17 - World English Bible

In these verses from Matthew 8, Jesus healed a Gentile and a Jew. The narrative of the Gentile came by the request of a centurion, an officer in the hated Roman army. In this case, the Lord chose to make himself unclean for the good of the soldier's servant, but the Gentile stopped him from breaking ritual kosher. The man understood military protocol; once a command was given, it was expected to be obeyed. Jesus remarked on the power of the centurion's faith; the soldier and many like him would enter the banquet of the Kingdom and feast along side the patriarchs, but those who rejected the Lord would be turned away. Notice Jesus praised the feared Roman, but spoke disparagingly of his fellow countrymen.

Next, Jesus healed the Simon Peter's mother-in-law who responded by serving him, a social expectation for a woman who had little status in her in-laws' home. But he went on to heal others in his home base of Capernaum. Matthew lost no time in describing his efforts as fulfilling Scripture, in this case Isaiah 53:4.

Have you seen God work in the life of someone you held in suspicion? How has he healed you?