under Authority
There are two times when Jesus "marveled" (KJV) or was "amazed" (NIV): He was stunned by the lack of faith of the people of His hometown (Mark 6:6), and by the great faith of a Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:10).
His amazement with the centurion centered around his saying to Jesus, Lord, I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. This humble faith would have been enough to have impressed Jesus, just as it was, for example, with the Canaanite woman whose great faith kept her asking Jesus for mercy for her daughter (Matthew 15:28). But the amazing faith of the centurion may have centered around his stated basis for it, as he said to Jesus, for I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go', and he goes; and that one 'Come', and he comes; I say to my servant, 'Do this', and he does it (Matthew 8:9).
Note that the centurion said that he was under authority; not that he himself had authority. Because he was under the authority of Rome and of his primus pilus commander, he was given the freedom to act within the realm to which that authority assigned him. And, because this man, as a seeker of Jesus, was placing himself under The Superior Authority of Jesus whom he called "Lord", he was given the freedom both to approach Jesus with a stunning request for a lowly servant, and with an equally amazing trust in Jesus' Authority to heal, even from a distance.
Ours is not a culture that supports our being under authority. We are a nation of rebels, right from our founding. This makes it hard for us to come under the authority of any one or any thing, let alone The Authority of Jesus. As such, we miss out on the freedom that comes with that submission, and the resulting agency to follow and serve in His Kingdom. The New Testament advises believers to be subject to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1), to rulers (Titus 3:1), including the megalomaniac emperor (1 Peter 2:13), and to one another (Ephesians 5:21), as we thereby practice coming under the Supreme Authority of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose service is perfect freedom.
May God give us grace to renounce any authority we take for ourselves, as we have done since our forebears did so in The Fall from Authority in Eden, and instead come under that Authority mediated through our Lord Jesus, so that we can live and act with freedom in His Name.