The Cross: Matthew 27:32-44

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Jesus could no longer carry it. The scourging had shredded his back, blood loss had weakened him. Simon—a random passerby from North Africa—was conscripted to bear the crossbeam.

They came to a place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull").

Golgotha. The skull place. Outside the city walls, where executions happened, where Rome displayed its power over conquered peoples.