sex
Explanation
This comic takes a common theological question and turns it into an accidental apocalyptic scenario.
A person asks Jesus on the cross, "Is there sex in heaven?" Jesus responds with a beatific description: "No, my child. There's something better -- total oneness, unencumbered by selfishness or cruelty or degradation." The person then asks, "And when does this rapture start?" Jesus innocently replies, "Tonight."
The caption at the bottom reads: "Inadvertently, Jesus causes a worldwide panic-orgy."
The humor hinges on a double meaning. Jesus is describing heavenly transcendence beginning "tonight" (meaning the afterlife awaits), but the human audience interprets "tonight" as the timing of the apocalypse/rapture. If everyone suddenly believed the world was ending that very night, the predictable human response would be hedonistic abandon -- the exact opposite of the spiritual purity Jesus was advertising. The comic plays on the well-worn comedic trope that if people knew the end was near, they'd immediately indulge in exactly the earthly pleasures that religion typically counsels against. The irony is that Jesus's attempt to describe something better than sex directly triggers a global explosion of sex.