Sometimes Christians are at a loss to know how to be Christian in conflicted work places. Should they be “maintainers”, peace-makers, rescuers? Should they try to sort out the vicious and demented? Should they keep out of the way and just get on with their job?
If Jesus worked there, what would he do? Lots of us would love to know the answer to that. Of course he does work there in the person of his disciple. So what he would do depends a bit on who the disciple is. In a way he is not only a worker he is also the boss. So he deploys his disciples in different ways.
And as they get more experienced as disciples he uses them in different ways. Some things are pretty clear. Lying, cheating, slandering, immorality are easy to decide about. But the behaviour of other people. What about that?
In Jesus’ own ministry sometimes he confronted people who ought to know better, sometimes he dug down a bit to see what was really driving the behaviour, sometimes he was really compassionate and forgiving - and caring for those who were being beaten down.
The advantage of having Jesus at work is not so much that he will keep us to a strict code of ethics as that he will help us see different ways of responding to the people we work with. And give us the patience and support to persevere when things are unpleasant.
Dale