Amos and the Plumb Line

I like the prophet Amos. Somewhere in the book that bears his name he says that he is not a prophet, not even the son of a prophet; rather, he is a herdsman, and a tender of sycamore trees. But God took him from his flocks and said, "Speak in My Name." What I like about Amos is that God spoke to him simply. God would show something to Amos and say "Amos, what do you see?" And Amos would dutifully describe what he saw. He may have been a simple herdsman but his eyesight was fine. Then God would tell Amos what the vision meant and what to say.
On one of these occasions God said to Amos, "What do you see?" and Amos replied, "A plumb line." And God said, "I am going to set a plumb line in the midst of My people and I will spare them no more." Now the judgment of God is nothing to be trifled with, and it set me to thinking that one of the reasons we go to church is to be judged of God. I know that would not be up at the top of anyone's list for going to Church, but in a real sense every time we come into the presence of God He sets the plumb line in the midst of us. And my train of thought led me to ask what that plumb line might be? My first response might be the law, the ten commandments, perhaps the scriptures. God may hold us accountable for what we do with these written commands, but He seems to judges us in a different way. And then it made perfect sense to me that the plumb line was Jesus. He was that one, independent, absolute measure of straightness or trueness that could never be wrong (perhaps that is why He is called faithful and true in the book of Revelation and why judgment is given into His hands by the Father). And we are measured by the fullness that He is. Law can be argued, it always requires additional legal opinion to get clear at its intent. Just consider the law, "You shall not murder." It seems simple at first, but is self defense or war murder or is it justifiable, under what circumstances, and so on. You can't argue Jesus in that manner. He is just what He is and when He stands in our midst we are seen to be what we are as well, no more, no less. That's judgment, but it is part of our salvation, and He remains faithful in completing what He has begun in us.
To paraphrase Hebrews 2:8-9 in light of how God dealt with the prophet Amos, we may not yet see everything put under the rule of Jesus, we may not fully understand what it is that we see presenting itself to us each day, but we do see Jesus. And seeing Him we know what it is that God requires of us, what He is saying in this age and for our communities.