For my money, the Italian masters could have learned a thing or two about that head.  This was no catalogue Christ, insufferably ethereal.  This was a wintry hardliner.  Justice, yes there would be justice.  But not mercy.  That was writ large on each feature for when, by the week’s end, I reached his raised right hand, it had not been made perfect: it still was pierced….’This is my hand.  This is what you did to me’…. 
                              From: A Month in the Country, by J.I. Carr

“Have you ever stood at the cross, with the Man hanging in pain,
Seen the look of love in his eyes…
Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord.”
From: “Have You Seen Jesus My Lord,” trad. Hymn 

            The first quote above is from J.I. Carr’s book about a WWI veteran, recently back from France.  He is spending the summer in the country village of Oxgodby, restoring the altar painting in the medieval church there.  The face of Christ he uncovers behind layers of plaster and smoke is not the compassionate, sacrificing face of the Renaissance masters – but the hard-lined face of earlier times. 
            This is the face the historical Jesus actually wore, according to Robert Wright, in an article from the most recent issue of The Atlantic (“One World Under God,” April 2009, pp. 38-53).  In it he posits that Mark is the earliest gospel (that is generally accepted nowadays, although some still argue for Matthean priority), and that in Mark’s gospel, Jesus most definitely does not present the loving face he does in the later three.  “In Mark there is no Sermon on the Mount, and thus no Beatitudes, and there is no Good Samaritan….the more familiar Jesus, the one who stresses tolerance and ethnic charity, shows up in Matthew and Luke, which seem to have been written a decade or two after Mark” (p.38). 
            I would like to take issue with this assessment.  In the first place I want to confess that where the text of scripture is concerned I am an unapologetic fundamentalist.  I believe the Bible we have is the Bible God wants us to have.  Every word of it (in the original manuscript) is exactly what He wants to communicate.  If I want to use the Bible authoritatively (and I don’t have to, God has given us all free will), then I can not undermine that authority by picking and choosing which parts of it I like, or which suits my schema the best.  And so, unless I have overwhelming manuscript evidence, I have no right to say this book should be jettisoned, that verse should be crossed out, and one Jesus is different from another.  If I make myself the arbiter of divine scripture – I make myself God.  One may take the Bible as authoritative scripture, as compelling literature, or ignore it altogether – but none of us has the right to cherry-pick out the parts we don’t like. 
            Now to the specific charge that in Mark, Jesus’ face is much sterner than in the other Gospels. 
            Mark’s gospel is unique in its brevity, vividness, speed (Mark’s favorite word is “immediately”) and focus on action instead of dialogue.  It is almost certainly a written record of oral history – and so there are no lengthy sermons in it.  But there is plenty of red ink.  Jesus does only use the word “love” once in Mark:  when he tells us (significantly) that the greatest command is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31).  “Compassion” is used in connection with Jesus 5 times (Mark 1:41, Mark 5:19, Mark 6:34, Mark 8:2, Mark 9:22).  In Mark’s gospel Jesus insists that we must care for each other, even on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1ff), that we are responsible for feeding the hungry (Mark 6:37), that the kingdom will be populated by those who become like little children (10.14), That taking advantage of the weak will be punished (Mark 12:29-31), and that one widow’s mite was more valuable than the riches of the wealthy (Mark 12:38-44). 
            In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ most forceful words about selflessness are recorded:

"Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

            No.  There is one Jesus, and he has one face.  From Gospel, to Gospel – each with its own readership, and communication strategy – He is the same, and his message is consistent. 
            It is the face described in the old devotional song from way back in my youth group days – hanging in pain with love in his eyes. 
            That’s the face of Jesus – the only one there is.