Mordecai and 1 Peter

So I was just listening to Adventures in Odyssey and heard the story of Esther again. Great story... crazy Esther and her courage.

But that aside, the main point of this post is about Mordecai. Now according to Adventures in Odyssey and corroborated by my own checkup in the bible (see Esther 3:2), the king had commanded that all must pay honour to Haman by kneeling down before him. However, Mordecai refused to do this because he was a Jew (i.e. bowing down only before God). He even refused to rise in his presence or pay him ANY honour at all (Esther 5:9).

Yet we see in 1 Peter 2:13-15, that we are commanded to "submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors..." Now, don't get me wrong, Haman was a nasty evil man and I'm not defending his actions at all. However, the book of Esther also says that Haman developped hatred and his desire to commit a genocide against the Jews because of Mordecai's disobediance to the king's command. Now I wonder, and I'm sure God knew better on this and thus worked things out for the best (or despite certain people's actions worked things out for the best) but wouldn't it have been better for ALL involved if Mordecai had obeyed the king's command and knelt before Haman (or even just showed him respect... which it seems he didn't even do that.) Was it not dishonouring to God when one of his people couldn't show the respect and courtesy one shows to his superiors? I'm sure that more people got turned off about God and the Jews than just Haman - although his reaction was quite drastic - because of Mordecai's irreverance.

On the other side, most accounts that I've heard of this story has been in the light that Mordecai defends his actions by saying that kneeling down to something is akin to worshipping it and he worships only his God - a stance with which I do not entirely disagree as well. So then, where does one draw the line between submitting to the authorities, a command given to us by God through his Word, and defying the authorities in God's name?

The other reason I really got to thinking about this was because in Korean culture, at New Year's (and whenever one meets one's elders) they will do something which is called 큰절 (very literally translated meaning big bow) where you fall on your knees and genuflect before said elder (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). Would this be considered worshipping my elders or simply showing respect by keeping to the tradition of my culture?

Or am I missing an entire angle here? Was there something about bowing down to people/things back in those days that elevated them to "god" status? (god is not capitalized intentionally) Hey if you read this, let me know what you think.