‘And he entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city.'
Having been rejected in Decapolis Jesus now returned to ‘His own city', that is, to Capernaum (Matthew 4:13). There is a pathos in this. It was not really His own city. He had been rejected from the town where He had been brought up. No wonder that He had nowhere to lay His head.
This interconnecting verse may well be seen as forming an inclusio with Matthew 8:23. It is finishing off the inner sequence. What follows is therefore not necessarily a part of the same time sequence. It is simply brought in here to complete the picture. (Mark in fact has it much earlier). It is sealing off the fact that Jesus has come to bring healing (Matthew 8:1-17), deliverance and security (Matthew 8:23-27), the vanquishing of man's Enemy (Matthew 8:28-34), and the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9:1-8). They are being ‘saved from their sins' (Matthew 1:21).