Jesus sends the Twelve to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That fits the biblical pattern of “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Israel is the first site of mission.

For many, though, the mission to Israel is a quick stepping stone to the mission to the Gentiles. Jesus’ disciples, it is said, failed to restore the sheep to their shepherd, and so they turned to the Gentiles. But that’s not the pattern of Old Testament prophecy; rather, the Gentiles flow to a restored Israel.

That, I think, is what happens in the gospel story. Jesus and His disciples do restore Israel. They don’t gather all the lost sheep. Some were goats. But Jesus saved and restored Israel, and the Israel He shepherded is sent out to the nations. Jesus is Himself Israel; but Jesus also gathers an Israel that will fulfill Israel’s mission of being a light to the Gentiles. Not just in theory, but in actual historical fact, salvation came from the Jews, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.

We can make better sense of this when we recognize that Jesus’ missionary instructions to the Twelve are not finished in His lifetime. When He sends out the Twelve, He says “you shall not finish the cities of ISrael until the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23). I take that “coming” as a reference to the parousia of the Son of Man in Matthew 24, the coming of the Son of Man to vindicate Himself and to judge Israel. That is the terminus of the mission to the lost sheep. And by that time, Israel was restored, “all Israel” had been saved, and that restored Israel was beginning to shine her light to the nations.