“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.
They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again” (Matthew 27:27-30 NIV).
The Praetorium served as the living quarters for the Roman armed forces of that era. It was there that the soldiers in charge of Jesus began to mock and ridicule His kingship. They went to great lengths to humiliate Jesus by spitting on Him and adorning Him in scarlet or purple, the colors of royalty. They twisted a crown made from thorns -a mock symbol of authority- and put it on His head. They gave Him a reed, or cane, as a sort of “Royal Scepter,” and then beat Him with it. The entire battalion of soldiers was there to witness this humiliation.
According to Luke 22:64, Jesus was also blindfolded while He was subjected to these beatings. Due to his inability to see and protect himself, Jesus likely experienced severe injuries to his head and face during this beating.
“They took Jesus therefore, and He went out bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha” (John 19:17 RSV).
The crossbar (or the horizontal portion of the cross) was called a patibulum. This was a lengthy piece of wood that was useful for barring large doors. They were generally 6 feet (2 m) long and weighed 100-125 lbs. (45-57 kg). Those condemned to crucifixion would be made to carry this crossbar to the site of their execution by balancing it along both shoulders while it was tied to their outstretched arms.
Jesus walked upon a path that is now known to us today as the Via Dolorosa, or the “way of suffering.” That path likely represented a half mile (0.8 km) walk to the site of His crucifixion. In Jesus’ case, the beating He sustained had weakened Him to the point where He was unable to sustain the weight of His cross. Therefore, a man named Simon of Cyrene, who happened to be passing by, was called upon to shoulder the burden of Jesus’ cross and carry it to the site of His crucifixion (Mark 15:21).