After all, some of the ideas and language in Bach's sacred music present barriers for non-Christians. A performer cannot ignore those ideas, for Bach often illustrates them with musical details. In Cantata No. 136, long streams of notes represent the great stream of Jesus' blood, which alone can cleanse humanity of sin. In Cantata No. 106, a severe fugue in the lower voices represents the strictness of Old Testament law, under which according to Bach's Lutheranism all humans perish, while an independent soprano line represents the hope of eternal life brought by Jesus. If you want to understand the emotions Bach intended, you have to engage with the texts.
Some texts are easy enough to engage with.
Eagerness for death, a sentiment expressed in a number of cantatas, is not a popular sermon topic today. And other discrepancies arise between Bach's world view and those of modern believers. I must hide from him before whom even the angels hide their faces. Bach and his librettists subscribed, all right. But many of Bach's core ideas clearly ring true for Mr. Suzuki.