give
Explanation
This comic satirizes the tension between traditional Christian ethics and modern effective altruism / rationalist philosophy.
In the first panel, a man prays to Christ: "Dear Christ, should I give all that I have to the poor?" A glowing halo figure (representing Jesus/God) responds simply: "Yes, my son." But in the next panels, the man begins arguing back using rationalist economic reasoning: "But then my only money-making vector is labor. In the modern world, capital returns far more than labor." He then continues: "If I want to maximize my aid to the poor, I'd be much more successful accumulating massive wealth and leaving a bequest to vetted charities."
This argument is a recognizable version of the "earning to give" philosophy from the effective altruism movement, which argues that rather than giving away everything now or working directly in charity, one should maximize earnings (often in finance) and donate strategically. The man is essentially using EA logic to talk Jesus out of his own commandment.
Jesus falls silent. The man says "Hello?" and we see Jesus has left -- or more precisely, has shrunk to a tiny distant figure. The final panel shows Jesus in heaven complaining to another divine figure (possibly God the Father): "MAN do I hate these ultra-rationalists." The other figure responds: "You can't even flood them! They'll just make hydropower!"
The humor works because the man's argument is technically sound within its own framework, which is exactly what makes it infuriating to the divine figures. Jesus' simple moral instruction ("give to the poor") gets overwhelmed by utilitarian optimization. The hydropower line in the final panel is the cherry on top -- even the Old Testament solution of divine punishment (the Flood from Genesis) would be co-opted by rationalists into an efficient energy source. The comic captures the comedic frustration of trying to deliver simple moral wisdom to people who will immediately try to optimize around it.