diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
index bbdc9158d8e2b..f1033ecdf6fab 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
@@ -1624,8 +1624,15 @@ class SparkContext(config: SparkConf) extends Logging with ExecutorAllocationCli
    * Adds a JAR dependency for all tasks to be executed on this SparkContext in the future.
    * The `path` passed can be either a local file, a file in HDFS (or other Hadoop-supported
    * filesystems), an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP URI, or local:/path for a file on every worker node.
+   * If addToCurrentClassLoader is true, attempt to add the new class to the current threads' class
+   * loader. In general adding to the current threads' class loader will impact all other
+   * application threads unless they have explicitly changed their class loader.
    */
   def addJar(path: String) {
+    addJar(path, false)
+  }
+
+  def addJar(path: String, addToCurrentClassLoader: Boolean) {
     if (path == null) {
       logWarning("null specified as parameter to addJar")
     } else {
@@ -1680,6 +1687,13 @@ class SparkContext(config: SparkConf) extends Logging with ExecutorAllocationCli
       if (key != null) {
         addedJars(key) = System.currentTimeMillis
         logInfo("Added JAR " + path + " at " + key + " with timestamp " + addedJars(key))
+        if (addToCurrentClassLoader) {
+          val currentCL = Utils.getContextOrSparkClassLoader
+          currentCL match {
+            case cl: MutableURLClassLoader => cl.addURL(new URI(key).toURL())
+            case _ => logWarning(s"Unsupported cl $currentCL will not update jars thread cl")
+          }
+        }
       }
     }
     postEnvironmentUpdate()
diff --git a/python/pyspark/context.py b/python/pyspark/context.py
index 529d16b480399..7238331daa3ef 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/context.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/context.py
@@ -810,6 +810,26 @@ def addPyFile(self, path):
             import importlib
             importlib.invalidate_caches()
 
+    def addJar(self, path, addToCurrentClassLoader=False):
+        """
+        Adds a JAR dependency for all tasks to be executed on this SparkContext in the future.
+        The `path` passed can be either a local file, a file in HDFS (or other Hadoop-supported
+        filesystems), an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP URI, or local:/path for a file on every worker node.
+        If addToCurrentClassLoader is true, attempt to add the new class to the current threads'
+        class loader. In general adding to the current threads' class loader will impact all other
+        application threads unless they have explicitly changed their class loader.
+        """
+        self._jsc.sc().addJar(path, addToCurrentClassLoader)
+
+    def _loadClass(self, className):
+        """
+        .. note:: Experimental
+
+        Loads a JVM class using the MutableClass loader used by spark.
+        This function exists because Py4J uses a different class loader.
+        """
+        self._jvm.org.apache.spark.util.Utils.getContextOrSparkClassLoader().loadClass(className)
+
     def setCheckpointDir(self, dirName):
         """
         Set the directory under which RDDs are going to be checkpointed. The
diff --git a/python/pyspark/tests.py b/python/pyspark/tests.py
index 5bd94476597ab..36336ff18eb70 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/tests.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/tests.py
@@ -410,6 +410,17 @@ def test_add_file_locally(self):
         with open(download_path) as test_file:
             self.assertEqual("Hello World!\n", test_file.readline())
 
+    def test_add_jar(self):
+        # We shouldn't be able to load anything from the package before it is added
+        self.assertRaises(Exception,
+                          lambda: sc._loadClass("sparkR.test.hello"))
+        # Load the new jar
+        path = os.path.join(SPARK_HOME, "./R/pkg/inst/test_support/sparktestjar_2.10-1.0.jar")
+        self.sc.addJar(path, True)
+        self.assertTrue(self.sc._jsc.sc().addedJars().toString().find("sparktestjar") != -1)
+        # Try and load a different one of the classes
+        cls = self.sc._loadClass("sparkR.test.basicFunction")
+
     def test_add_py_file_locally(self):
         # To ensure that we're actually testing addPyFile's effects, check that
         # this fails due to `userlibrary` not being on the Python path: