He bore His own cross: cf. (Luke 14:27). He who instructed us to bear our cross did first bear His own. The usual practice in a crucifixion was that the prisoner, in the middle of four Roman soldiers and preceded by an officer who was bearing a placard denoting the offense for which the condemned was to be killed, would carry his own cross through as many streets as possible as a warning to the inhabitants not to break Roman laws.

Luke 14:27  And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Ironically, Jesus here bears the cross upon which He is going to bear our sins in His body (Isa 53:6, 1 Peter 2:24).

Isaiah 53:6  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

1 Peter 2:24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

It is also to be noted that Isaac was a type of Christ and he, too, had to bear the instrument of his sacrifice (Gen 22:6).

Genesis 22:6  Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,

Being in poor physical shape from the scourging and beatings, and having to go the same distance as the two thieves (Luke 23:32), Jesus can not carry His cross the entire way and a traveler from out of town is pressed into the duty (Mark 15:21).

Luke 23:32  Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

Mark 15:21  A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Golgotha is located outside the city gates (Heb 13:12) and near the city, but we do not know where, nor do we know why it was called “the place of the skull”. The usual explanation is that it was a hill shaped like a skull, but there are no ancient traditions that state this nor are we told anywhere in scripture that Jesus was crucified on a hill. Another explanation is that skulls of the victims lay scattered about, but Jewish law would have strictly forbid this and there could not have been gardens in the vicinity (John 19:41) if this were true. Another suggestion is that Adam was buried there, but this legend started years after Christ’s death and is unlikely. We get the word “Calvary” from the Latin “calvaria” which means “skull.”

Hebrews 13:12  And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

John 19:41  At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no-one had ever been laid.

An interesting observation is that John uses the Greek “place of the Skull” to denote the place and then adds the Aramaic “Golgotha” as a side thought. The reason for this is that he was writing much later to an audience composed of Greeks and Romans. Matthew, on the other hand, reverses the order, using Golgotha as the name of the place and then translating it into the Greek, the reason being that Matthew is writing to the Jews (Matt 27:33). What is fascinating here is that God would choose Matthew, the former tax-collector and collaborator with the Romans, to write the gospel aimed at the Jews who would hate his former actions the most, while He picked John, a relative of the high priest, to write to the Gentiles. What does this tell you about God?

Matthew 27:33  They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).