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I think He made it clear that there were two 'kingdoms' one earthly, and one heavenly. I agree that He also admonished us to abide by the mandates of legitimate civil authority. However, in the case of his questioning before Pilate, I don't think His nonchalance should be interpreted to be a sanction of Pilate's authority over Him, or that Pilate was right in the situation. I interpret the whole exchange, and Jesus' apparent unwillingness to become confrontational, to reflect Jesus' utter disregard for Pilate's authority over Him. I guess it would be like you or I being brought into a Cub Scout Pack Board of Inquiry (I'm making such a body up). You tell your Cub Scouts to obey the law of the Pack and submit to the board, but if you yourself were hauled in before it, you would probably treat it with similar nonchalance, or even disdain.

I believe almost all Christian churches teach obedience to legitimate authority.

I interpret the whole exchange, and Jesus' apparent unwillingness to become confrontational, to reflect Jesus' utter disregard for Pilate's authority over Him. I guess it would be like you or I being brought into a Cub Scout Pack Board of Inquiry (I'm making such a body up). You tell your Cub Scouts to obey the law of the Pack and submit to the board, but if you yourself were hauled in before it, you would probably treat it with similar nonchalance, or even disdain.

The problem with your example is that I am not a Cub Scout, but Jesus was a man. There was no "utter disregard" for Pilate's authority because his authority to carry out his duties as Caesar's representative was real. If Christ had intended to illustrate an utter disregard for the authority of the Roman government, He would have been executed by the Pharisees instead.

I think these events reveal quite a bit about Christ and His mission that isn't obvious at first glance. I believe that the "render unto Caesar" discourse was not just intended to serve as a point of instruction for Christians, but foretold the events that would unfold later on. Christ specifically told the Pharisees to "give Caesar what is his and give God what is His," but in the end the Pharisees would do neither. In their vain attempt to adhere to the Law of Moses, they refused to kill Christ themselves during Passover but instead handed Him over to Caesar to have it done. In "rendering unto Caesar" something that was not Caesar's, they took something away from God (His Chosen People) something that was God's.

It is worth noting, then, that the very first conversion after Christ's death involved not a Jewish citizen of Israel but a pagan citizen of Rome -- the centurion who stood at the foot of the cross. This was not an accident of history -- it was a clear indication that the future of Christ's Church would lie not with the Chosen People, but with the Gentiles.