Matthew 27:32:
And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.John 19:16,17:
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
The scriptures quoted here appear to pose a clear contradiction on first view, but even here there is not really a contradiction in the Bible. This contradiction is self made because one assumes and guesses things which are familiar from traditional teaching and many pictures and paintings. The biblical record however is absolutely clear and free of contradictions.
If we consider the records in Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21 and in Luke 23:26, we get an accurate picture of what happened that morning in Jerusalem. When Jesus was to be taken and led out by the soldiers to the place of the crucifixion, and when they came out of the Praetorium, the soldiers got hold of a foreigner who was just passing by, so that he would take and carry the wooden cross (sort of like a tree pole) after Jesus. No place in these three verses, nor in any of the verses following them about what happened on the way to Golgotha, is it ever mentioned that Jesus carried the wooden cross himself. He did not touch the wooden cross until he was nailed to the tree after they had arrived at Golgotha. After the torture and the pains which had been inflicted upon him when they kept him and tried him, he was quite obviously too weak on account of his sufferings so that he was not able to carry the wooden cross himself. That's why the soldiers forced someone else immediately when they came out of the hall to carry it.
The record in John 19:17 however speaks clearly of the truth that Christ was "bearing his cross". Now, from the records in the other gospels it is clear that "his cross" could not be referring to the wooden cross which was carried by Simon of Cyrene after him. Therefore, "his cross" must refer to something else.
The word "cross" was used by Jesus himself with a different meaning when he spoke to his disciples about everyone having to take "his cross" and that only then could he be his disciples (cp. Matthew 10:38 and 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23 and 14:27). Quite obviously Jesus was not speaking of picking up a wooden cross to which every disciple of his would be nailed and would be executed in this way. In these verses, we do have the same usage and meaning of the word "cross" as in John 19:17 where it says that Jesus bore "his cross"! What Jesus demanded of his disciples he himself lived and practised in his life -- he took upon himself "his cross", i.e. he fulfuilled the responsibility entrusted to him. "His cross" was not a wooden bar or pole but the work of redemption which he in accordance with the will of God, his Father, accomplished by giving his life on Golgotha as a ransom for many.
The apparent contradiction between the statement in John 19:17 and the records about Jesus' crucifixion in the other gospels dissolves when we recognize that the word "cross" is used with different meanings and does not always refer to the wooden tree on which Jesus was crucified. In one usage it does refer literally to the wooden tree which Simon of Cyrene carried and on which Jesus was afterwards crucified; but in another usage "cross" is used as part of a figure of speech very emphatically for that which Christ fulfilled when he accomplished the work which the Father had entrusted to him by being obedient even unto the death on the cross.